With 90 minutes separating the teams from a place in the Eredivisie promotion playoff final, Emmen and NAC Breda will do battle at De Oude Meerdijk on Saturday.

Following a 2-1 victory for the hosts in the first leg, the visitors know that anything less than a win this weekend would spell the end of their top-flight aspirations.

Match preview

Emmen just about did enough to secure a 2-1 victory over lower-league opposition Breda and put themselves in the driving seat to reach the promotion playoff final.

Dick Lukkien's men raced to a commanding lead heading into the interval thanks to strikes from Lorenzo Burnet and Ole Romeny after which Aime Omgba halved the deficit in second-half stoppage time.

That was a first win in five matches for the Kannibals, who lost each of their final four matches of the just-concluded campaign to finish 16th in the Eredivisie table.

Wednesday's victory over Breda also stretched Emmen's unbeaten run in this fixture to three games since suffering a penalty-shootout heartbreak at this stage of the Eredivisie promotion playoffs two years ago.

Now with the opportunity to exact revenge for the aforementioned defeat, Saturday's hosts set out to retain their place amongst the elite of Dutch football and condemn their opponents to yet another campaign in the Eerste Divisie.

Entering this weekend's contest with a two-goal deficit to make up would have been a near-unassailable task for Breda, but Omgba's last-gasp consolation offers some hope.

However, Peter Hyballa's men will have to perform far better than last time out, where they racked up just two shots on goal despite dominating possession of the ball.

Their away form certainly does give room for optimism, with Saturday's visitors having come out on top in four of their most recent five away matches.

Breda have also found the back of the net a whopping 12 times across those five outings, while letting in just five goals at the other end.

Team News

Mart Lieder and Maikel Kieftenbeld are still unavailable for Emmen through knee injuries, while Rui-Jorge Mendes misses out due to a long-term muscle injury.

Metehan Guclu has not featured for the home side since November due to injury and the Turk is still a long way off making his return to action.

After grabbing a goal on his return to the starting XI, 32-year-old Lorenzo Burnet is expected to retain his place in the starting lineup.

Kaj de Rooij is a guaranteed absentee for Breda as the forward remains sidelined with a knee problem which he picked up over three months ago.

The away side will also be without the services of Jarchino Antonia and Boris van Schuppen, but the latter is drawing increasingly closer to making his comeback.

Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Burnet, Veldmate, Araujo, Te Wierik; El Messaoudi, Vlak; Romeny, Diemers, Antonisse; Zivkovic

NAC Breda possible starting lineup:
Van de Merbel; Di Michele, Velthuis, Martina, Lucassen; Banzuzi, Vet, Garbett; Agougil, Van der Sande, Omarsson

We say: Emmen 2-1 NAC Breda

With so much still left to play for, we are expecting an exciting contest with chances at both ends. That said, we are tipping the home side to come out on top and book their place in the promotion playoffs final.


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

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