FC Den Bosch finally broke the streak of five defeats in a row with a hard fought and barely deserved victory over Jong PSV. That victory isn’t enough to celebrate in Den Bosch, but it has eased the pressure on the team for the moment. However, it seems they’ll have a tougher game coming up against MVV.

MVV were the surprise team of the first part of the season and at Christmas they even seemed to have a chance at direct promotion. A couple of games later, the direct promotion dream seems a distant memory. They only collected one point from the last four games, and are now 10 points behind second place Heracles Almelo. Despite picking up few results, they haven’t played that bad, but the defence, that had been pretty solid so far, is suddenly falling apart, conceding 11 goals in those four matches.

Last match, left back Lars Schenk wasn’t there and Clint Essers, just back from injury, played instead, but that didn’t go that well. It wasn’t just Essers, but the defence was open house against Telstar.

Conceding five goals in that game wasn’t even flattering, and the three goals they scored, all with direct involvement from in-form striker Koen Kostons, weren’t enough to get a result. It is unclear whether Schenk will be back for this game, but against a weak FC Den Bosch side, manager Verberne, who has done most things right so far, might shake things up a bit in defence and Den Bosch might be the perfect opponent to get some confidence back in the team.

FC Den Bosch only scored twice in the last seven games and since there is not much wrong with MVV’s attacking line, I suspect they’ll pick up the three points here.

PEC Zwolle are in great form in the Eerste Divisie. They won their last seven league games, including the biggest one, against fellow promotion favourite Heracles Almelo. Dick Schreuder’s side scored 21 goals in those games, and now they are playing against one of the worst teams in the league, TOP Oss.

TOP Oss replaced manager Kristof Aelbrecht with Marcel van der Sloot and since the change, they scored in every game, but picking up points still proved to be difficult for the side who are next to bottom at the start of this round. TOP will also be without winger Jearl Margaritha, who is suspended for this game.

That means that PEC Zwolle are even more favourites than they would already be. They have a lot of quality up front with Lennart Thy and Younes Taha, but their best player at the moment is in midfield. 21-year-old Thomas van der Belt has been in brilliant form last weeks with goals, but also with his dominance on the ball and that makes PEC almost unbeatable at the moment.

There is no point in betting on PEC to win this game, as the odds are very low, but a bet on overs should be a good shout. TOP Oss improved their scoring record under the new manager and PEC’s goalscoring form speaks for itself.

Twelve months can be a long time in football. This time last year, Vaduz were top of the Challenge League table after a 3-2 away win at Winterthur, aiming for an instant return to the Super League after relegation in the previous season. FC Wil were down in eighth, relegation was not a concern given the plight of SC Kriens, but they were a side that had no consistency to move up the table. As they meet in the principality of Liechtenstein for the return of Switzerland’s second-tier this weekend, they have reversed roles. It is FC Wil that are sitting at the top with thirty-four points, only seven less than their total for the entirety of last season. Vaduz are down in ninth, five points ahead of Neuchatel Xamax in the relegation spot, but with only three victories.

The principality club has had a lot of distractions in the 22/23 campaign. They became the first Liechtensteiner club to qualify for a European Group Stage back in August and struggled to deal with the rigours of midweek football. After a bad start that brought zero wins in their first ten league games, form improved in October with the first three wins of the season and only two defeats in nine. Ultimately, it was not enough to save the job of manager Alessandro Mangiarratti and the experienced Jurgen Seeberger was appointed during the winter break.

One year ago, Wil had scored 34 goals and conceded 33 goals ahead of Round 19. It was that inability to defend that kept them near the bottom of the table for much of the 21/22 campaign. The attacking formula had been perfected but they had no such solutions for their shaky backline. Not many would’ve predicted FCW at the top of the pile at this stage, but it is because of that goal-scoring prowess (36 goals) and improvement in defence (22 goals conceded) that they have been able to achieve it and while it remains to be seen if it can last, the signs are promising indeed.

Despite these two being at opposite ends of the table, it could be a tight game at the Rheinpark on Friday night. Vaduz have the worst home record in the league but they often find the net, scoring and conceding fourteen goals in nine matches. The foundation of Wil’s successful first half of the season was their home form. Away from home, they’ve won only three of nine and conceded all but six of twenty-goals on the road. Vaduz have failed to score only twice at home while Wil have only two away clean sheets. For those reasons, I predict Both Teams to Score.

The new season kicks off at La Huerta stadium as 2022 Apertura champions Libertad take on a Guaraní side shaken up in the off season. The Gumarelo only lost once at home in the league last year, but they come into this match with just one home win in their last four as they stuttered towards the end of the Clausura.

Daniel Garnero has lost some key players in midfield during the off season and at the time of writing is yet to replace them in the transfer window. Veterans Daniel Bocanegra and Marcelo Díaz emigrated tor Nacional (Uruguay) and Audax Italiano (Chile) respectively while Iván Franco has joined Houston Dynamo on loan. Young star Diego Gómez is also absent currently representing Paraguay in the U20s South American Championships. Despite the departures they still boast a very strong squad especially going forward with Lorenzo Melgarejo, Oscar Cardozo and the likely return from injury of Héctor “Tito” Villalba.

Hernán Rodrigo López has picked up the reins at Guaraní following a relatively successful time in Nacional where he implemented a direct, counter attacking style. Like Friday night’s rivals they are missing some key talents, all-time topscorer Fernando Fernández has crossed the city to Cerro Porteño while youngsters Matías Segovia and Romeo Benítez are missing through international duty and injury respectively. However, the aurinegro have made 12 signings in total and will be looking to the experience of Néstor Camacho and Marcos Cáceres to guide the team towards the top half of the table.

The last contest between these sides was a 2-1 win to Libertad who have dominated the recent meetings, going unbeaten over 90 minutes in the last nine matches. The only cheer for Guaraní was a penalty shootout win in the Copa Paraguay in September after a heated affair. In the 2022 Clausura Libertad averaged 1.6 goals per game while Guaraní conceded 1.45 and BTTS has landed in 10 of the last 12 league fixtures.