Football – Netherlands – Eredivisie
Sunday 19th October 2014 – Kickoff: 1645hrs
FC Groningen return to their home ground of Euroborg as they go in search of their fourth straight home win in the Eredivisie which could lift them up into one of the Europa League places in the Dutch top flight.
Despite possessing a terrible away record where they’ve lost four of their first five on their travels, Groningen do have a strong record on home turf which currently stands at 3-0-0 6/1 having registered wins over Heracles 3-1, second placed Ajax 2-0 and Willem II 1-0. In fact, FC Groningen have won their last eight home matches on the trot and during this remarkable sequence, they’ve racked up four clean sheets in the process.
Their leading goalscorer is midfielder de Leeuw with 4 goals, and they’ve scored 2 or more goals in six of these last eight matches.
Visitors Excelsior by contrast have failed to win in their last four overall with defeats against Vitesse 1-3 away and most recently, a 0-3 loss at Eredivisie league leaders PSV Eindhoven while grabbing points against Dordrecht and Cambuur in 1-1 draws at home.
Excelsior still remain unbeaten at home actually with a 2-2-0 record but on their travels they’ve been very poor having registered just one point from a possible 12 so far with defeats at Heerenveen as well as the aforementioned Vitesse and PSV, with an overall record of 0-1-3 2/9.
Goals have been hard to come by on the road for today’s visitors as they’ve failed to score twice and they’ve conceded in each of their last fifteen away matches in the Eredivisie.
The last statistic could therefore be a telling one in today’s clash at FC Groningen who hold a solid record on home ground, and I’m expecting the hosts to chalk up a fourth consecutive win here, by perhaps a 1-0 or 2-0 scoreline.
Pick: FC Groningen straight win @ 1.62 Coral
