Go Ahead Eagles will kick off the 2024-25 Eredivisie campaign when they welcome Fortuna Sittard to De Adelaarshorst on Sunday.
The home side finished the 2023-24 season in ninth place, while Fortuna Sittard were eight points further back in 10th position.
Match preview
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After finishing in 13th and 11th position, Go Ahead Eagles showed improvement to claim a top-half finish last season.
Go Ahead Eagles won 12, drew 10 and lost 12 of their 34 matches to end the 2023-24 campaign in ninth place, representing their best Eredivisie finish since 1978-79.
As a result of their league finish, they went on to compete in the playoffs for Europa Conference League qualification, where they beat NEC and Utrecht to return to UEFA competition for the first time since 2015-16.
Unfortunately for Go Ahead Eagles, they saw their manager Rene Hake depart over the summer, with the 52-year-old leaving the Dutch top flight to become Erik ten Hag's assistant manager at Man United.
Paul Simonis, who was appointed Hake's successor, began his tenure in a disappointing fashion, overseeing a 2-1 aggregate defeat in the second round of Europa Conference League qualifying, and he will now be tasked with picking up his side for the opening game of the Eredivisie season.
Fortuna Sittard are preparing to compete in seventh consecutive top-flight campaign after producing a solid performance in 2023-24.
They collected 38 points from their 34 Eredivisie matches to finish in 10th position – their best top-flight finish since the 1998-99 campaign.
If they are to improve upon that position this season, Fortuna Sittard will need to move up a level in the final third after ending the 2023-24 campaign as the division's fourth-lowest scorer.
They also struggled on their travels last season, finishing the campaign with the joint-third worst away record after collecting just 11 points from their 17 road trip in the Eredivisie.
Having lost their last three away games against Go Ahead Eagles, Fortuna Sittard will enter the opening day with hopes of claiming their first league win at De Adelaarshorst since recording a 1-0 victory in the second tier in April 2018
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Team News
The hosts are expected to be without Julius Dirksen, Gerrit Nauber, Pim Saathof and Oliver Edvardsen due to injury.
Midfielder Enric Llansana could return to the starting lineup after he missed the second leg of the European clash with Brann through suspension.
Go Ahead Eagles will be forced into a change of goalkeeper because Jeffrey De Lange has completed a move to Marseille since featuring in both legs of the Europa Conference League qualifying tie.
As for Fortuna Sittard, they are unable to call upon Kaj Sierhuis, who is out for an extended period after sustaining a serious knee injury at the end of last season.
Mattijs Branderhorst, Shawn Adewoye, Darijo Grujcic, Syb van Ottele and Ryan Fosso are among those who could be given their competitive debuts after joining Fortuna Sittard over the summer.
Josip Mitrovic and Makan Aiko could also make their first appearances for the club, with the pair poised to start in a front three alongside Kristoffer Peterson.
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Plogmann; Deijl, Amofa, Kramer, James; Linthorst, Tengstedt, Llansana; Adekanye, Breum, Edvardsen
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Adewoye, Grujcic, Van Ottele; Pinto, Fosso, Rossier, Dijks; Mitrovic, Aiko, Peterson
We say: Go Ahead Eagles 2-0 Fortuna Sittard
Go Ahead Eagles have won three of their last four meetings with Fortuna Sittard, and we think that they will draw confidence from that recent record to get their campaign up and running with a win in Sunday's Eredivisie opener.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
