In this 30th week match, on Saturday Apr 23rd, NEC hosts Ajax at Sportpark De Weeren in a meeting of these two extremely mismatched Eredivisie teams in the anticipated Nijmegen derby. Weather on match day is looking like a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 12 degrees, which is great football weather. NEC sits at 10th place in the tables. In their last match they recorded a 0-2 loss against FC Twente. Virgil Misidjan struck first for FC Twente in the 65th minute, then Dimitris Limnios added another in the 75th minute In the end, NEC couldn’t muster any offence and FC Twente ran away with the shutout win. They’re hoping to improve on their recent performance, having earned only 9 points in their last 10 matches, while ajax sits at 1st place in the tables. In their last match they recorded a 1-2 loss against PSV. Ryan Gravenberch scored the first goal for Ajax in the 23rd minute, then in the 48th minute, Ibrahim Sangaré sent in a beautiful pass which was converted by Érick Gutiérrez Finally they completed the comback in the 50th minute on a goal by Cody Gakpo to cap off a wild match. Ajax is on a hot streak lately, having won 8 of their last 10 matches.
NEC and Ajax last played eachother at the Johan Cruijff Arena on the 14th of August. Ajax won by a score of 5 to 0 in front of just over 32000 spectators. Sébastien Haller struck first for Ajax in the 5th minute on a feed from Noussair Mazraoui, then Noussair Mazraoui added another in the 9th minute In the end, NEC couldn’t muster any offence and Ajax ran away with the shutout win.
Ajax’s most prolific scorer has been Dušan Tadić. The Serbian attacker has netted three goals over the last five matches. Rodrigo Guth and Magnus Elkjaer Mattsson are the top scorers for NEC in the last 5 matches, but unfortunately they only have one goal.
Rogier Meijer’s NEC squad will be without van Eijden, Proper and Pedro Ruiz, while Lisandro Martínez, Rensch and Maarten Stekelenburg are unavailable to play for Erik ten Hag’s team.