This Friday there are eight matches in the Eerste Divisie and we start with the most anticipated game of them all, as PEC could seal promotion. With five matches to go, PEC hold a 13-point lead over Almere City, the last remaining rival that could stop PEC from gaining direct promotion to the Eredivisie. A draw is enough for PEC Zwolle to secure a spot in the top flight for next season and the fans are excited. Many Zwolle fans tried to get tickets for this game, but Almere City interfered and cancelled tickets PEC fans bought between the home fans.

It still looks like the away stand will be packed and there could still be a couple of Zwolle fans hidden in the Almere crowd, so they’ll have plenty of support for this game. Zwolle are easily the best team this year in the Dutch second tie. Most of their team would be absolutely fine in the Eredivisie and talented midfielder Thomas van der Belt already knows he’ll join Feyenoord ahead of next season. The 21-year-old player bosses the midfield this season and scored both goals in last week’s victory over Telstar.

Almere are a decent side for the second division but are simply a few levels down from PEC. They don’t really have players you can easily see performing well in the top flight. Almere are almost at full fitness, only midfielder Marcelencio Esajas will have to miss this game due to a suspension, but that doesn’t seem enough against a PEC Zwolle side at full strength and hungry for promotion. I’d fancy PEC to finish this in style, but given the stakes, they’d take a draw as well.

The match in Almere between PEC Zwolle and Almere City is obviously important to those teams, but Heracles Almelo also have a massive stake in that game. Holding the second direct promotion spot at the moment, five points behind PEC Zwolle, they could make a giant leap towards promotion on Friday, especially with an Almere defeat. Heracles have a lot of top flight quality players in the side, and even though they lost winger and top goalscorer Nikolai Laursen with an ACL injury for the rest of the year, they are far too good for this league.

They obviously can’t control what’ll happen in Almere, but a victory in their match against Helmond Sport would edge them close to promotion and that seems likely to happen. With new owners, Helmond Sport invested heavily in the squad ahead of this season, but the results stayed below par. It cost the previous manager his job and former Vitesse striker Bob Peeters took over. Peeters is a decent manager with plenty of experience, who stands for steady, pretty boring football and his main achievement so far has been that he made Helmond Sport difficult to beat.

Helmond Sport have only lost three matches out of 16 played this year, but they have barely played the top teams in the second division in that streak and that is about to change with a tough schedule for the final weeks. I suspect Helmond Sport are a bit overpriced due to recent results in easy fixtures, but with Heracles, they’ll play a team at a whole different level, so I’d put money on Heracles taking another big step to promotion.

It looks like Telstar can forget a play-off spot that’ll give them a chance at promotion this season. They looked steady at the start of the year and eyed a spot in the season-finale, but after three defeats in the last three games, that is no more than an illusion. They were good against some of the other weak teams in the league, but against the bottom half of the table, they mostly failed to impress and VVV are one of those sides.

VVV aren’t the most interesting team to watch, but they are pretty steady and barely drop points against lower ranked teams. Striker Nick Venema had a slump of form and was even dropped from the starting XI a couple of times recently, but the decent 85th minute equaliser last match showed that he is still the prolific striker who seems tailor-made for second division football.

I’d fancy a VVV victory at relatively high odds of 2.63, because I reckon they are a bit undervalued at the moment due to their bad run. They only collected two points from the last four games, but they were a bit unlucky against a few of the best sides at this moment. They are favourites in this game, although I can see them settling for a draw if they struggle to find the goal early on, so I’d put my money on an away result.

Since the break for the World Cup, Volendam have picked up 22 points from their last 15 fixtures, having only taken 5 from their first 14. Wim Jonk has really turned around their fortunes; it goes to show that if you do stick with a manager who has been at the club a while, you can get results with patience.

This is a marvellous opportunity for Volendam to get three valuable points. Cambuur are nine points from safety now with only five games to go; they have lost their last five in a row. They continue to leak goals with chances creating from the wide areas.

As slow and cumbersome as Volendam striker Henk Veerman may seem, he has very good close control and I think his physicality will trouble Cambuur. Last time out, Volendam troubled PSV and could have scored more in their 2-3 loss. They will push the wing-backs up high to cause problems from wide areas.

This season is already threatening to get away from Treaty United who sit second from bottom in the League of Ireland First Division following just one win from their opening eight matches. As for Cobh Ramblers, despite falling to back-to-back defeats in recent weeks, Shane Keegan will be delighted with his team’s start to the campaign with the Rams currently sitting in the divisions play-off places in fourth place.

The off-season proved to be a real sliding doors moment for these clubs with Cobh Ramblers able to attract some big name players to St. Colmans Park while Treaty United saw their squad weakened by key departures and an inability to compete financially with clubs like Cobh in the transfer window.

Jack Doherty’s capture has undoubtedly been the key driving force behind Cobh’s turnaround this season with the former Ipswich Town midfielder scoring 6 goals and assisting 3 times in 9 league matches. Unfortunately for Doherty, he put the ball on a plate for Athlone to score their second goal last week as he was caught playing in the wrong direction but given how Doherty plays, you’ve got to allow him the odd moment of madness as it’s his creative thinking and vision that makes him the threat he is and Shane Keegan won’t want to shackle that.

Treaty United had signed Ryan Connolly to be their playmaker but the former Shamrock Rovers man stepped away from the Limerick club in pre-season due to work commitments and that appears to have been the catalyst for Treaty’s decline.

You can’t pin all of Treaty’s troubles on Connolly’s absence however, as defensively Treaty have been woeful this season. Tommy Barrett’s team have conceded 13 goals in 8 matches and their last line of defence looks significantly weaker than last season following goalkeeper Jack Brady’s departure to Longford.

This looks like the kind of game ready made for Doherty and co.

It’s bottom against top in Ligue 1 on Friday night at Stade Raymond Kopa, and though PSG have been far from their best in recent weeks, the final score is likely to reflect that reality.

Angers have turned in some improved performances in recent weeks, but it is worth remembering that this is very much a relative term. After a home draw against Nice and then a win against Lille, they were defeated 2-1 in Clermont last weekend by an opponent that played much of the game with 10 men and finished with nine.

There remains a brittleness about the home side, who have shown a capacity to concede goals in great numbers if they fall behind. Morale is clearly fragile. Moreover, they come into this match with numerous injuries, particularly in the defensive areas of the team. Midfielder Nabil Bentaleb – one of their better performers – is missing because of a ban. They lack a strong defensive presence to plug that gap.

PSG, on the other hand, still have work to do to tidy up the title, even coming off a 3-1 win against Lens last weekend. They were excellent for a brief period in that match but have typically only played in fits and starts in the second half of the season. Nevertheless, they should have far too much quality in their ranks for Angers.

Eight of PSG’s 11 Ligue 1 away wins this season have been by more than a single goal. Against an Angers side, expect that run to continue and even PSG -2 at 2.8 looks decent value. Given the guests’ questionable recent form, -1 is a safer bet, though.

The Primeira Liga’s 29th matchday kicks off on Friday as Casa Pia hosts Braga at the Complexo Desportivo do Jamor. Casa Pia kicked off their first top-flight season in 83 years with a run of impressive results, including a 1-0 win against Braga on November 6, that would see them emerge as one of the toughest defenses in the league and occupy fifth place for various months. However, after returning from the World Cup break with a 2-1 win at Portimonense and a 0-0 draw vs. Porto, Casa Pia have struggled for form, losing seven matches, drawing three and exiting the Taça de Portugal quarterfinals in a 5-2 defeat to second-tier Nacional, whilst their sole wins have come against Paços de Ferreira, Santa Clara and Marítimo, who occupy the bottom three. They have fallen to ninth in the table, two points behind sixth-placed Vitória and six behind fifth-placed Arouca, who occupy the final guaranteed European position, and they have kept just one clean sheet since March, a 2-0 win against Marítimo on March 19.

Whilst the magical carriage is slowly turning into a pumpkin for Casa Pia, Braga still harbor hopes of executing a fairytale campaign under Artur Jorge, with the Arsenalistas 90 minutes away from a spot in the Taça de Portugal Final after beating Nacional 5-0, where they will face either Porto or Famalicão. They sit third in the table – which earns qualification to the Champions League third qualifying round – and two points behind Porto in second place – which earns automatic qualification to the Champions League group stage. Braga are looking to return to Europe’s premier competition after 11 years, and they sit seven points above fourth-placed Sporting with six matches left.

Despite selling Portuguese striker Vitinha to Marseille in January for €32 million, Braga have not missed a beat under Artur Jorge with six wins and a draw against Porto since the start of March. Having nearly let two points slip in the previous weekend, Braga will be wanting to put away the contest early on and exploit a flailing Casa Pia side that has conceded eight goals in its last three games as well as 10 or more shots in each of its last six games. Expect Braga to come away with their 22nd win of the season and move one step closer to Champions League qualification.