Week 16 brings us a match on Jan 15th, where NEC will travel to Arnhem to battle Vitesse in a meeting of these two closely matched Eredivisie teams. The game day is forecasted to be a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 5 degrees, making for an unpleasant day. 14th placed Vitesse is fresh off their 1-1 draw against AZ Alkmaar. Vangelis Pavlidis scored the first goal for AZ Alkmaar in the 77th minute, but Mohamed Sankoh got the equalizer for Vitesse in the 87th minute earning Vitesse at least a draw. They’re hoping to improve on their recent performance, having lost 4 of their last 10, while 9th placed NEC is fresh off their 4-0 shutout win against Almere City. Oussama Tannane struck first for NEC in the 5th minute, then Elayis Tavsan added another in the 43rd minute In the end, Almere City was frustrated by NEC’s defence and couldn’t put any tallies on the board. NEC ended the match with the shutout victory. NEC is looking for direction having 2 win and 2 losses in their last 10 matches.
These two teams have not yet played each other this season. Last season Vitesse won the head to head battle with 2 wins.
NEC’s most prolific scorer has been Marques. He has netted 3 goals over the last 5 matches. Manhoef has been the most prolific scorer on Vitesse in the last 5 matches with 2 goals
Phillip Cocu’s Vitesse squad will be without Maximilian Wittek and Bartosz Bialek, while Rogier Meijer’s NEC squad will be without De Wolf and Robin Roefs.