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

Two teams with highly contrasting starts to the 2025-26 season will do battle at the BUKO Stadion on Saturday afternoon as Telstar entertain the challenge of NEC.

Approaching the midway point of the campaign, the hosts are currently bottom of the Eredivisie table, while the away side are flying high in third place.

Match preview

NEC continued their impressive run of late by picking up a hard-fought 3-2 triumph over relegation-threatened Volendam when the sides went head-to-head at the Kras Stadion on Sunday.

Having trailed 1-0 and led 2-1 at different stages of the contest, Dick Schreuder's men looked set to settle for a point before Kento Shiogai netted in second-half stoppage time to hand his side a fourth straight victory.

Only Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven (15) have picked up more points over the last five gameweeks than NEC (12), and it is no surprise the Eniesee currently find themselves on course for a place in the Champions League playoffs.

While the possibility of featuring in Europe's premier club competition is undoubtedly an exciting prospect, NEC must remain grounded in their quest to make history.

Saturday's upcoming assignment against Telstar is the first-ever top-flight meeting between the teams, but the Nijmegen-based outfit often dominated their lower-league encounters with six wins from 10 meetings (D2 L2).

In the first of three matches over seven days, this weekend's visitors will be confident of keeping the juggernaut rolling as they seek to close out the year on a high.

Telstar were once again guilty of throwing away a lead late on in their 1-1 draw against Heracles at the Asito Stadium on Saturday, when Ivan Mesik's late strike cancelled out a Milan Zonneveld opener midway through the second half.

Anthony Correia's men have now lost just one of their last five matches, albeit playing out stalemates in the other four, three of which they were in pole position to claim maximum points.

Sitting bottom of the league table is hardly a good look, but De Witte Leeuwen are only just three points shy of safety and could end this weekend's round of matches outside the relegation zone.

Telstar have picked up only one league win and six points from eight league matches at home all season long and will need to get their act together in front of their fans to stand a good chance of beating the drop.

With a KNVB Beker assignment against Hoek to follow three days later, Saturday's hosts will be eager to get back to winning ways before their penultimate outing of 2025, after which they wrap up proceedings away at NAC Breda.

Telstar Eredivisie form:

Telstar form (all competitions):

NEC Eredivisie form:

NEC form (all competitions):

Team News

Devon Koswal came off injured midway through Telstar's draw against Heracles, and the 22-year-old is a doubt to play any part in Saturday's affair.

Should Koswal be deemed unfit to participate, Tyrese Noslin will be expected to make an immediate return to the hosts' XI after a rare omission last time out.

For NEC, it is as you were on the injury front, with Youssef El Kachati (hand), Noe Lebreton (ankle), Bram Nuytinck and Freek Entius (knee) all still sidelined.

Jasper Cillessen and Brayann Pereira are also guaranteed absentees, while the involvement of Philippe Sandler and Deveron Fonville continues to hang in the balance.

Turkish defender Ahmetcan Kaplan will serve a one-game suspension after he received his fifth yellow card of the season last time.

Following his most recent strike, Kento Shiogai is now the away side's joint leading scorer, and all six of his goals have come as a substitute.

Telstar possible starting lineup:

Koeman; Bakker, Offerhaus, Nwankwo; Noslin, Rossen, Owusu, Hardeveld; Brouwer, Van de Kamp, Hetli

NEC possible starting lineup:

Crettaz; Willems, Kaplan, Dasa; Onal, Nejasmic, Sano, Ouaissa; Chery, Linssen, Ogawa

We say: Telstar 1-2 NEC

NEC left it later than they would have probably liked in their narrow win over Volendam, but the momentum remains firmly with them heading into Saturday's meeting.

Despite their struggles, Telstar have been hard to beat for most parts of the campaign, and we can see them giving a good account of themselves once again, albeit all to no avail.

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