Preview: Go Ahead Eagles vs Telstar - prediction, team news, lineups

Go Ahead Eagles welcome SC Telstar to De Adelaarshorst in Deventer for an Eredivisie fixture on Friday.

Ninth-placed hosts, winless in five matches, take on a Telstar side sixteenth in the table and chasing a first win in eight attempts.

Match preview

Joseph Oosting's side sit ninth in the Eredivisie table, their two wins, five draws and two defeats from nine matches producing 11 points.

Four of Go Ahead Eagles' past five outings have ended level, taking in 3-3 draws against FC Utrecht and Sparta Rotterdam either side of 1-1 stalemates with FC Groningen and NEC Nijmegen.

That rhythm of parity was broken in the worst possible fashion in the IJssel derby on Sunday, as Go Ahead Eagles shipped four goals in a 4-1 defeat at PEC Zwolle.

Soren Tengstedt has scored five goals from an advanced role in Oosting's 4-2-3-1 already this season, the most of any Go Ahead Eagles player.

Oosting only took charge at De Adelaarshorst in June 2026 on a two-year contract, arriving after predecessor Melvin Boel departed by mutual consent following a 12th-place finish that fell well short of the club's ambitions a year after their first major trophy in 92 years.

It is Go Ahead Eagles' third head coach in three seasons, and Oosting himself arrives having been dismissed by both FC Twente and Royal Antwerp FC in the 12 months before taking the job, with Friday's game followed four days later by a KNVB Beker tie away at Koninklijke HFC.

Telstar occupy 16th place with just six points from nine matches, sitting in the Eredivisie's relegation play-off zone and only one point behind 15th-placed PEC Zwolle.

Henk Brugge's side have scored just 10 goals in nine league matches, level with PEC Zwolle for the second-fewest tally in the division.

A single victory from the opening weekend is the only win Telstar have to show from nine matches, with three draws and five defeats following since.

That winless sequence now stretches to eight matches, extended by a 2-2 draw at ADO Den Haag and a 3-4 home defeat to Feyenoord in the space of a week.

Brugge was only appointed in May 2026, arriving from SC Heerenveen, where he had served as assistant coach since 2023, succeeding Anthony Correia after the latter left for FC Utrecht.

The early tenure has coincided with a testing fixture list, and a trip to a Go Ahead Eagles side six places and five points above them represents another step in a battle to avoid an immediate relegation fight.

Go Ahead Eagles Eredivisie form:

Go Ahead Eagles form (all competitions):

Telstar Eredivisie form:

Telstar form (all competitions):

Team News

Pim Saathof remains sidelined for Go Ahead Eagles with the knee injury that has kept him out since May 2025, with his return not expected until around the turn of the year.

Eus Waayers is also absent, the defender having been missing since mid-September, leaving Oosting with a near-complete squad to choose from otherwise.

Rui Mendes with an unknown injury for Telstar ahead of the trip to Deventer, with a return date unknown and is the only player unavailable for Oosting.

That leaves the head coach with almost his full squad to pick from, with Patrick Brouwer, a regular fixture in attack this season, likely to retain his place up front.

Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:

Haug; Sampsted, Van Zwam, Kramer, James; Meulensteen, Linthorst; Tengstedt, Edvardsen, Suray; Sigurdarson

Telstar possible starting lineup:

Koeman Jr; Peersman, Soualhia, Valk, Alders; Rossen, Owusu, Shenkman; Brouwer, Thorisson, Martha

We say: Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 Telstar

Go Ahead Eagles' home draws this season point to a side still searching for control in matches rather than a lack of quality, and Telstar's meagre return of 10 goals from nine matches offers them an attainable route back to winning ways.

Recent history offers a note of caution, though: Go Ahead Eagles have failed to beat Telstar in any of their past three meetings, losing 4-2 in last season's league fixture and then 2-1 to them in a KNVB Beker quarter-final as holders, either side of a 1-1 draw at De Adelaarshorst.

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