De Graafschap suffered a surprise 0-2 loss away to rock bottom Vitesse last week. It’s unusual that they wouldn’t at least score. Only Volendam have scored more goals than their tally of 49, but conceding 38 goals at the other end of the field has been a clear problem. 18 out of 26 of their matches have gone over 2.5 goals this season and their fixtures as a regular glutton for goals. That is especially the case at home where their fixtures average 3.80 goals per game. Despite a couple of recent low scoring affairs, a home game vs a porous Jong AZ looks like a good time to be backing the over 2.5 again.

Jong AZ are another team renowned for being involved in high scoring contests. 17 of their 25 league games have gone over 2.5 and their matches average 3.50 goals per game. Last week they drew 3-3 vs Roda in what was a wild affair, and prior to that easily beat VVV Venlo 3-0. Jong AZ have scored at least one goal in all of their last seven games and usually play on the front foot looking to entertain and outscore the opposition. This is a difficult team to predict but De Graafschap as deserving short priced favourites and the over 2.5 looks like the best bet. The reverse fixture ended a 2-2 draw and all of the last three head-to-head meetings have gone over 2.5.

De Graafschap suffered a surprise 0-2 loss away to rock bottom Vitesse last week. It’s unusual that they wouldn’t at least score. Only Volendam have scored more goals than their tally of 49, but conceding 38 goals at the other end of the field has been a clear problem. 18 out of 26 of their matches have gone over 2.5 goals this season and their fixtures as a regular glutton for goals. That is especially the case at home where their fixtures average 3.80 goals per game. Despite a couple of recent low scoring affairs, a home game vs a porous Jong AZ looks like a good time to be backing the over 2.5 again.

Jong AZ are another team renowned for being involved in high scoring contests. 17 of their 25 league games have gone over 2.5 and their matches average 3.50 goals per game. Last week they drew 3-3 vs Roda in what was a wild affair, and prior to that easily beat VVV Venlo 3-0. Jong AZ have scored at least one goal in all of their last seven games and usually play on the front foot looking to entertain and outscore the opposition. This is a difficult team to predict but De Graafschap as deserving short priced favourites and the over 2.5 looks like the best bet. The reverse fixture ended a 2-2 draw and all of the last three head-to-head meetings have gone over 2.5.

After a wild 3-3 draw vs Jong AZ and defeat to Dordrecht we have seen Roda drop out of the playoff positions down to 9th place. Their results since the start of December have been all over the place with 3 wins, 5 defeats and one draw. The one clear pattern recently has been goals with all of their last 4 games going over 2.5, a couple of them going significantly over the goal line. Roda have only kept one clean sheet since 26th November, which was a 3-0 home win as a massive favourite vs Jong AZ. This is a defence which can’t be relied on but do have goals in them. Striker Thibo Baeten has been looking sharp recently and could be in line to start after some successful bench appearances.

One of the quickest teams out of the traps this season were Den Bosch, but their form dropped towards the end of 2024. They are a team who tend to drop up and down and there is a lot of inconsistency. Den Bosch shockingly beat table toppers Volendam in a recent home game 3-0 which shows the power they have if they click. They followed that up with consecutive 0-1 losses to De Graafschao and Telstar though so are quite difficult to predict. Which version of Den Bosch will show up? All of their last seven fixtures in this league have been BTTS no which is highly unusual for this particular division. Because Roda are probably going to suck them into a shootout then taking over 2.5 goals is probably an option worth considering.

Telstar continue to be an ‘all or nothing’ team with 5 wins and 4 defeats in their last 9 league games. Telstar’s big problem has been away from home but they claimed a rare road win with a 1-0 success at Den Bosch last week. The hosts have lost the leading scorer in the league with Zakaria Eddahchouri moving to Deportivo in Spain. But Youssef El Kachati has picked up the pieces and scored a brace in their 6-0 win vs Jong Utrecht a couple of weeks ago. Telstar have won their last four straight home games and scored 13 goals in the process so they can be relied on for goals.

Excelsior are still third in the Eerste Divisie table but have been in poor form recently with 4 defeats, one draw and just a solitary victory in their last 6 games. They had a strong defence towards the back end of 2024 but things have chances with just one clean sheet in the aforementioned 6 games period and conceding 13 goals. They will hope to rebound soon but this looks like a tricky test to avoid what would be a fourth consecutive away defeat. Only two teams have scored more times than Excelsior this season and they are going to need to lean on their attack force here facing a strong Telstar. Over 2.5 goals is the obvious play for most matches at this venue.