Deportivo Pereira will be itching to get back on the pitch in the Libertadores after their cruel 2-1 defeat to Boca Juniors in Argentina last time out. The Colombian outfit threw away a 1-0 lead, conceding twice in added time.

However, after a strong comeback of their own to claim a point against Colo Colo, Pereira now face Group F’s weakest team in Monagas.

The Venezuelan club have yet to score in their two matches, and despite holding Boca Juniors to a 0-0 draw at home, they will continue to find life tough on the road. It’s also worth mentioning Boca finished the match with nine men and have since changed the manager who was in charge at the time.

Pereira should have more than a point on the board, but this is an excellent opportunity for the Colombian champions to put themselves on four points and firmly in the mix of qualifying for the knockout stage.

Despite struggling to land many domestic victories, Monagas are a level below Pereira’s ability, who will have too much in front of their home fans for the Venezuelan club, who look destined to finish rock bottom of the group.

SJK’s surprise demolition of early season surprise AC Oulu last week shocked everyone, a 0-3 win was as comprehensive as it sounds and proof that Joaquin Gomez is really getting his side to perform. Jaime Moreno’s two goals were overdue but he was clinical and he was joined on the scoresheet by Jeremiah Streng – both were prolific in pre-season but this feels like a start. SJK have only conceded one so far, a solid defence helping young Arsenal loanee Ovie Ejeheri settle nicely in goal. There is a buzz in the fanbase after a long period of underachieving for the money spent.

Gomez has also started to get a tune out of Jake Dunwoody, former Stoke and Derry City midfielder who is looking dominant and strong in the centre. He assisted both of Moreno’s goals last week and has matured into a confident performer. Alongside academy graduate Valentin Gasc, the two will be looking to stamp themselves over the game.

This is only Inter’s third match of the season, victims of postponements and poor pitches. The impressive opening day win at KuPS was followed by a controversial loss to Ilves (having a clear goal not given) and we still don’t really know what we’re going to get from Jarkko Wiss’s new side and their new look strike force. Darren Smith scored in both games and Timo Stavitski has looked threatening, his early potential still there perhaps. Inter are another club who’ve not converted investment into trophies and it’s likely that a sharper SJK will punish rustiness.

After almost reaching an unlikely Europa Conference League spot, hopes were high for VPS after a good season and scoring plenty. Four games into 2023, they’ve still not scored a league goal despite their best efforts. Their goalless draw against Honka last week provided plenty of entertainment and expected goals, but neither side was able to break the deadlock. Vepsu have been somewhat unfortunate with their fixtures, back to back games against HJK was harsh but they were disappointed not to register in the other two. Nomadic striker Peter Michael looks like he left his shooting boots in Norway while Steven Morrissey is rarely getting league minutes. Already looking like a long season.

Mariehamn’s poor start to the season continued on Sunday against KuPS, the second goal was a tragi-comedy as their goal music accidentally played during a corner, from which KuPS went straight up the other end and scored. The signing of Saudi international winger Abdulfattah Asiri has brought a lot of social media attention from his 1.4m Instagram followers but he lacked sharpness in his short cameo having not played a competitive game in months. The goals conceded this year indicate a lack of concentration and mistakes being punished – bottom already and a defeat in this fixture would be a sore one against a team as wasteful as VPS.

Both clubs have been constants in the bottom half of the table in recent years and this already has the air of a relegation play-off. Likely to be tense as one neither can afford to lose.

We’ll only have half the teams playing this Friday in the Dutch second division. That is mostly due to the Fifth of May festival to honour the World War II liberation 78 years ago. Freshly promoted Heracles Almelo will play this Friday and it should be a fairly easy one for them. With FC Dordrecht, they are facing one of the worst teams in the league, and with the pressure off, that could be a great opportunity to celebrate promotion with a big win.

FC Dordrecht have had a shocking second half of the season. They did, however, win two from the last four matches, but both were against academy teams who were pretty decimated during those games, so it is hard to read too much into that. Feyenoord-loanee Tidjany Touré will return from suspension, but the youngster has been very inconsistent this season. Other than that, Dordrecht really just lacks quality, they seemed to have signed some experience this winter with Tim Receveur, but the defensive midfielder has been disappointing, to say the least.

Despite the big target for this season, promotion, already in the pocket, Heracles Almelo still have something to play for. They are only three points behind leader PEC Zwolle, so the league title is still within reach. The pressure is off, but a victory for the best-scoring team in the league seems more than likely, that’s why I’d put my money on an easy Heracles victory.

Willem II are one of the best teams in the league this second half of the season. They got rid of manager Kevin Hofland in December and since then, they left the defensive ranks and started playing decent football again. With a player budget far higher than the average second-division side, it was only a matter of time before they were back to winning ways, so they have already qualified for the promotion play-offs with three matches to go.

The big change came in creating opportunities. Willem II used to focus entirely on defence and didn’t really have a plan going forward, they are now a team that always creates chances and scored twice or more in nine out of the last ten games. The player that changed Willem II’s faith upfront is Elton Kabangu. The 25-year-old Belgian striker was in the ICU for weeks with COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic and it took him more than two years to get back to a proper level, but since manager Reinier Robbemond is in charge, he HAS started every game and repaid that trust with 11 goals in 14 games.

Telstar are one of the lowest scoring teams in the league and they still have a minimal chance of qualifying for the end of the season play-offs, but only a win would help them, so they have a lot to play for. Telstar will focus on their defence as long as there is a stalemate, but I suspect the away side are simply too strong and should secure another three-pointer on their way to the promotion play-offs.

Having won 6 of their last 7 matches including the last 3 on the spin, it’s starting to look ominous for the rest of the league as defending champions Shamrock Rovers continue to move through the gears as they attempt to motor on to a fourth consecutive league title.

As for Bohemians, they are the league’s unlikely league leaders but there is a feeling they are soon going to run out of gas and recent performances do seem to indicate that is a possibility.

Aside from putting five goals past a very poor Cork City side on Monday, Bohs were disappointing when drawing 1-1 with the league bottom side UCD on the Friday previous while they were fortunate to win 2-0 against Drogheda the week before.

There have been plenty of occasions this season where Bohs haven’t blown people away with their performance but have got the result and that’s of course always a positive however, Shamrock Rovers brushed their city rivals aside with ease earlier in the season and there’s a very good chance they’ll do the same in front of their own fans here.

It was a poor bank holiday weekend for Finn Harps as the Donegal side picked up just one point from a possible six in back-to-back home matches. A comprehensive beating at home to Athlone Town has got to be worrying for Harps fans and with Cobh Ramblers flying high this season this could be a horrible away day for Harps players and fans.

This fixture is one of the biggest in terms of distance between the two clubs so that is something you always have to take into account.

While Cobh Ramblers did also lose a game during the Friday/Monday bank holiday schedule, that defeat was against full-time outfit Waterford and the Rams did bounce back with a comprehensive 4-1 win against the division’s bottom team Kerry FC.

Finn Harps are very much going through a transitional season but constant chatter of “gelling” will soon wear thin with supporters if there are more results like Monday night. Harps are only just averaging over a goal a game and their defensive record is the second-worst in the league.

With Cobh high on confidence after Monday’s win, this looks a good opportunity to continue their push for promotion with a win.

Longford Town caused the upset of the season on Monday when they became the first team to take points off and defeat the league leaders Galway United.

An early goal from Mo Boudiaf was followed up by an excellent backs-to-the-wall defensive shift with Town keeper Jack Brady putting in a heroic performance between the sticks.

Longford Town’s defensive organisation, work rate and desire answered any questions that may have been out there about the character of this young team and also any suggestions that the team are not responding to the current management team.

What’s important for Longford now is they build on that seismic win and put a run together. Town’s upcoming fixtures give them a real opportunity to do that starting with a first-ever trip to Kerry on Friday night.

Kerry FC had shown small signs of an upturn in form off the back of a 9-1 hammering against Galway United but the club from the Kingdom are still without a win and in recent weeks results and performances appeared to have gone south again.

The league’s newest side are shipping goals at the back and what’s most worrying is they don’t seem to be learning from their mistakes. Longford’s headline-grabbing win last time out will count for nothing if they don’t back it up here against the league’s weakest team.