Preview: NEC vs. Telstar - prediction, team news, lineups

Fresh off a rare failure to find the back of the net against Olympiacos during the week, NEC are back in Eredivisie action against Telstar on Saturday as they begin the 2026-27 top-flight season at Goffertstadion.

This weekend's encounter marks Dick Schreuder's team's first in the competition since they secured their place among Europe's elite for the first time, and they aim to start this year positively against opponents who survived on the final day of the 2025-26 season.

Match preview

Tuesday saw NEC break new ground as they played Champions League football — albeit in the preliminary round — for the first time, notching a creditable draw away at Olympiacos.

While the goalless encounter marked a rare second time in 28 matches in 2026 that the Nijmegen outfit have failed to score, they return to home comforts on Saturday aware of their impressive record in front of goal in 2025-26.

Only champions PSV Eindhoven with 101 goals outscored Dick Schreuder's men, with the third-placed side's 77 being seven more than runners-up Feyenoord at the season's culmination.

That should excite supporters who could end August celebrating progress to the Champions League proper at their first try — if they beat Olympiacos and advance in the playoff round — although eagle-eyed observers will point to the team's recent inability to score as something to worry about.

Indeed, while NEC have scored in 26 of 28 games this year, those two blanks have come in the last three, suggesting a dip ahead of the new season for a side who won just two of their seven matches in the off-season and lost four.

As such, Telstar will hope that the ongoing blip extends into Saturday as the Nijmegen hosts look to begin the campaign on a good note, with the away side now operating under new boss Henk Brugge.

Anthony Correira guided the club to safety on the final day, successfully steering the club's first Eredivisie appearance in 48 years to finish 14th in the final table and five points clear of Volendam in the playoff position.

Volendam ultimately failed to beat the drop in the playoffs, but long-time followers of Telstar could have been the ones having to deal with that eventuality had they suffered a loss on the concluding gameweek of the previous season.

Correira has since moved on to FC Utrecht, and Henk Brugge is now tasked with preserving the White Lions' top-flight status for another year.

Their pre-season form, though, has been mixed, with a wild 6-3 victory over De Graafschap an obvious outlier sandwiched by narrow losses to Almere City (2-1), Sparta Rotterdam (1-0) and Wolfsburg.

Now, they hope to put that run of results behind them to carry on the form that saw them accrue 10 points from a possible 12 to close out the previous campaign.

NEC form (all competitions):

Telstar friendlies form:

Team News

Perr Schuurs has not played competitive football of any kind since October 2023 due to a serious knee injury, and he joined NEC in June after his release from Torino; however, the centre-back has yet to play for the Dutch side since his summer transfer.

Debuts could be handed to Dusan Tadic, Salzburg loanee Clement Bischoff, Emre Mor and Kaj Sierhuis, the latter of whom scored 12 league goals for Fortuna Sittard last season.

While Bryan Linssen and Tjaronn Chery could not score in Tuesday's draw at Olympiacos, the two players responsible for 22 of NEC's 77 goals in 2025-26 should play from the off this weekend.

It remains to be seen if last season's eight-goal Eredivisie forward Koki Ogawa returns following his exclusion from the Champions League squad for the trip to Piraeus.

Telstar have a surfeit of additions to the squad, with Gabi Caschili, Harrie Kuster, Fabiano Rust and Rui Mendes transferring from Cambuur, Twente, Feyenoord and Groningen respectively.

Having joined the club in February on loan from Ajax, Gerald Alders has returned to De Witte Leeuwen for the season, while Abdelnor Soualhia, Sem van Duijn, Cedric Hatenboer and Nigel Nwankwo have temporarily moved to the North Holland club from AZ Alkmaar, AZ, Anderlecht and FC Utrecht respectively.

Patrick Brouwer and Jeff Hardeveld both had 13 goal contributions in 2025-26 and should start at left wing and left wing-back on Saturday.

NEC possible starting lineup:

Crettaz; Pereira, Sandler, Fonville; Ouaissa, Sano, Nejasmic, Willumsson; Chery, Lebreton; Linssen

Telstar possible starting lineup:

Koeman Jr; Alders, Peersman, Nwankwo; Seedorf, Soualhia, Rossen, Hardeveld; Mendes, Tejan, Brouwer

We say: NEC 2-1 Telstar

Despite their recent inability to score as frequently as they normally do, backing NEC remains a fair bet, even though their typical approach to having open games gives Telstar a chance of scoring.

Nonetheless, far too much has changed at Telstar, who ought to get on the scoresheet this weekend but are likely to suffer an opening loss in Nijmegen.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.