The big match in this Monday round in the Eerste Divisie is between top of the league PEC Zwolle and the recently revived De Graafschap. De Graafschap were having a pretty awful season and seemed to miss out on the play-offs, but since manager Adrie Poldervaart got ill and assistant Richard Roelofsen temporarily took over, the side started winning again with good positive football and are back in the fight for the play-offs. Poldervaart seems to be out for quite a while longer, so there probably won’t be any changes.

PEC Zwolle are having a brilliant season, the side has the best team in the league, they are scoring tons of goals, playing without worries and are heading straight for promotion. The stand-out result was the 13-0 victory over FC Den Bosch last week, that went into the history books as joint best result in the history of Dutch professional football. For the match against De Graafschap that focus on attacking rather than sitting back and defend, that should bid for a good match. De Graafschap have one of the best fan groups of this league and they are positive about their team again, so that should make for a thrilling atmosphere. De Graafschap scored 10 goals in the last three league matches, but, mostly because of the 13-0 PEC tops that with 18 goals, so this seems a recipe for goals.

This is a match between two academy teams that have two different realities. Jong FC Utrecht are rock bottom, seven points behind the second to bottom, where Jong PSV have been pretty steady, despite being without several of their usual starters in many games. When their first team had lots of injuries, manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, who’d only come over from this Jong PSV side this season, often used the youngsters in the first team.

The injuries haven’t quite disappeared yet, but for the Monday games, that usually doesn’t matter that much as there won’t be a midweek game for PSV. If players like Ismael Saibari, Richard Ledezma and Jason van Duiven won’t get much game time, they have a good chance of featuring in this Monday away game in Utrecht. Johan Bakayoko has become a starter in the first team and is unlikely to feature for Jong PSV again anytime soon.

Jong FC Utrecht barely have first team fringe players in their team, so a Monday game won’t make much difference to this side. Where Jong PSV played last Friday, Utrecht’s match was suspended due to snow, but for youth teams two matches a week at this level shouldn’t make too much of a difference, that’s why I fully expect Jong PSV to at least get a result here.

Back into the last eight of the Champions League for the first time in a decade, AC Milan fans will be telling anybody who will listen that they are back. Hosting Salernitana on Monday night, the chances of fatigue are reduced and the Rossoneri will back themselves.

Salernitana have it in them to be tricky opponents this season – as Juventus learned in Turin – but Milan’s form is such that they’re not likely to give too much up. That Fiorentina scored twice against them was a surprise, having kept clean sheet after clean sheet before that. They got back into that swing as they shut Tottenham out in both legs of their Champions League last-16 tie and it’s hard to see Salernitana being able to do something that Spurs couldn’t across two games.

Mike Maignan’s return to goal is a huge boost, and playing behind one of Serie A’s best backlines – boosted by Malick Thiaw’s emergence – Stefano Pioli will be expecting his side to claim another clean sheet and three points on Monday night.

Montilivi is cursed territory for Atlético Madrid, who have never tasted victory across three previous visits to Girona’s stadium, but there’s good reason to believe that such a record could be about to change. Atlético have more points than everyone other than Barcelona since the return from the World Cup.

Girona’s last three matches have averaged 5.3 goals per game, an astounding stat which is likely to boost Atlético’s hopes. That’s given that the Colchoneros have conceded only three goals in their last seven games, a record only bettered by LaLiga’s top two in Real Madrid and Barcelona, who have both conceded two.

If they can shut up shop, they’ll be confident of beating Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga given that the Catalans have kept only one clean sheet all season and Atleti scored six against Sevilla last Saturday. That performance saw Memphis Depay, Antoine Griezmann and Álvaro Morata all on the scoresheet and looking confident in front of goal.

Last weekend, Girona suffered a 3-2 defeat to Getafe, including going three goals down in a first half which coach Míchel labelled “quite bad”. Such sloppiness at the back won’t be forgiven by Atlético, while the coach also criticised his attackers for “not being decisive until we were 3-0 down”. The visitors are good value at 2.05 to win.

Facundo Sava’s side are back at home after coming through two of their hardest games of the season unbeaten, the clásico at Olimpia’s stadium followed by Thursday night’s heroic victory in Brazil against Fortaleza. Luqueño celebrated a rare win and cleansheet in the 1-0 victory over Resistencia that gave manager Gustavo Florentín a lifeline.

Cerro Porteño’s goalkeeper issues seemed to have been overcome when Jean Fernandes returned between the sticks in midweek. However, the Brazilian looked to be in discomfort during a brave performance in his homeland and isn’t guaranteed to start. Sava has usually rotated his strikers so Fernando Fernández and Marcelo Martins are tipped to lead the line in this game.

Marcelo Pérez is leading the scoring charts for the visitors but it was his striker partner Paul Charpentier who grabbed the winner against Resistencia. The Argentine had been doing useful work for the team already and this goal should boost confidence no end. Importantly for the side Pablo Aguilar is back from his 2 game suspension and will line up in central defence, however both Juan Núñez and Sebastián Maldonado are still unavailable following their red cards against Guaraní.

Cerro Porteño are unbeaten in 14 games but if Jean Fernandes doesn’t start their ability to keep a clean sheet is at risk, especially against a side that has nothing to lose. Luqueño usually find the net one way or the other and will be better rested than their opponents. The home win is still the most likely result, but the value is in the goals market.

While Palmaflor have won all three “home” games against Blooming since 2021, this game will be played far away from the Capriles, in Villa Tunari, as the club has been bought and transferred to a new location. The change has seen to have had a positive effect with Palmaflor being fifth on nine points, Blooming on the other hand have had an awful start, with barely one point to their name. They would be bottom if Wilstermann had not had points deducted, and their kneejerk replacement of Thiago Leitao with Carlos Bustos as manager has not seemed to stop the rot, as they went down 5-0 at home to Bolivar on Sunday.

While it is worthwhile bearing in mind Blooming won the encounter between the two sides in the Sudamericana played Thursday in Santa Cruz by 6-0, and while they have some seasoned players such as Spenhay, Justiniano and Valverde, Blooming just don’t seem able to get any positive results going in the league. Palmaflor for their part have a very settled team with the backbone of Baldomar, Reyes, Cañete, Orihuela and Adrian all starting nearly every game. Expect a home win.