FC Twente will be hoping to get 2025 off to a winning start when they face fellow top-half opponents Willem II at De Grolsch Veste in Sunday's early kickoff in the Eredivisie.
The hosts went into the December break in sixth place with 31 points, while the visitors ended the year in ninth place with 22 points across the first half of the season.
Match preview
After spending the majority of the first half of the season inside the top five in the league standings, two defeats in their last three league matches of 2024 saw Twente slip to sixth place before the break.
The first of those defeats was a thumping 6-1 loss to league leaders PSV Eindhoven on the road at the start of December, while the second came on the final matchday of the year, 1-0 away to AZ Alkmaar.
In between those results, the Tukkers also played out a goalless draw against Olympiakos in the Europa League, which maintained their winless record in Europe this season, leaving them a point below the playoff cutoff in the continental cup competition heading into the final two rounds of the League Phase.
Therefore, it is fair to say that Joseph Oosting has plenty of work to do in the second half of the campaign, and the Reds' boss will be aiming to get started with a positive result here, against a side his team have dominated in recent times, unbeaten in their last five encounters.
Despite their erratic form in the lead-up to the end of 2024, Twente have been very good at home this season, still unbeaten after eight league matches (W5 D3 L0), while they have maintained clean sheets in four of their last six.
Meanwhile, newly promoted Willem II have enjoyed a very impressive first half of the season in the top flight, capped off with a 4-1 victory over NEC in their final match of last year which propelled them into the top half of the table.
In that match, an Ivan Marquez own-goal gave Superkruiken the lead inside the first quarter of the match, while Jeremy Bokila, Ringo Meerveld and Boris Lambert all got on the scoresheet to secure the points following Koki Ogawa's leveller in the 24th minute.
Peter Maes's side have now netted 21 goals in the top flight this season, but more impressively, they have only conceded 19, which is the fourth-lowest tally in the division behind PSV (13) Ajax (16) and AZ (17).
The visitors have also done fairly well on their travels this season (W3 D2 L3), picking up points against the likes of Feyenoord and AZ, while two of their three defeats were to formidable opponents in Ajax and Utrecht.
When these sides met in the reverse fixture back in November, Willem gave Twente a proper test and could have taken a point from the match, but a momentarily lapse of concentration allowed Sam Lammers to score the only goal of the match for the Tukkers.
Team News
Sem Steijn has been irreplaceable for Twente this season, having already netted 12 times in the league competition, which sees him leading the race for the Willy van der Kuijlen Trophy, two goals clear of Ricardo Pepi and Troy Parrott.
The hosts are likely to be missing at least two players through injury this weekend, including long-term absentee Younes Taha, who is still working his way back from a broken leg, while Mees Hilgers is flagged as a doubt owing to a knock.
Reports in the lead-up to this match have suggested that Amine Lachkar had sustained a groin injury during the league break, which could lead to the central midfielder being sidelined for this match.
Willem are also set to start the New Year without Niels van Berkel and Dani Mathieu, both of whom are still recovering from knee surgery, as well as Amar Fatah (groin) and Valentino Vermeulen (knock).
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Van Rooij, Lagerbielke, Van Hoorenbeeck, Salah-Eddine; Regeer, Steijn, Sadilek; Vlap, Van Wolfswinkel, Rots
Willem II possible starting lineup:
Didillon-Hodl; St. Jago, Behounek, Schouten, Sigurgeirsson; Doodeman, Lambert, Bosch, Joosten; Bokila, Meerveld
We say: FC Twente 2-1 Willem II
Despite ending 2024 fairly poorly, Twente are yet to taste defeat at De Grolsch Veste this season and are unbeaten in their last five matches against this opponent. We expect the visitors to provide another stern test here, but fancy the host to edge the result.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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