Highlighted: Four Teams compete for the last European ticket

This season, the play-offs for European football no longer have home and away matches, and the two rounds are decided in a single match. This perhaps increases the chance of an upset. In the past three years, the team that started the play-offs as the highest-ranked team won the ticket for European football. In the years before that, it was sometimes the second-placed team that was fortunate.

Because the Netherlands has one more ticket to distribute this season than last year and the KNVB Cup was won by Feyenoord, both the eighth and ninth place teams in the Eredivisie will participate in the play-offs this season. The last time the eighth-placed team in the Eredivisie qualified for European football was in the 2008/09 season when NAC Breda won the play-offs.

Because the Netherlands has one more ticket to distribute this season than last year and the KNVB Cup was won by Feyenoord, both the eighth and ninth place teams in the Eredivisie will participate in the play-offs this season. The last time the eighth-placed team in the Eredivisie qualified for European football was in the 2008/09 season when NAC Breda won the play-offs.

FC Utrecht is the most experienced team among the current participants in the play-offs. Since the 2015/16 season, the Domstedelingen have participated in every edition of the play-offs, winning twice. Additionally, Utrecht has Ron Jans, a specialist, as their coach this season. Last year, Jans won the play-offs with FC Twente. In total, the 65-year-old coach has been on the bench for 26 play-off matches, at least fourteen more than any other coach this century.

While FC Utrecht can rely on their past successes, the other three teams come into the play-offs with confidence based on their performance in the past Eredivisie season. N.E.C. secured sixth place, their second-highest finish ever in the Eredivisie, just behind their fifth-place finish in the 2002/03 season. For Go Ahead Eagles, it was the first time since the 1978/79 season that they finished in the top nine of an Eredivisie season. Sparta, on the other hand, might be the team in the best form right now. The Spangenaren won six of their last eight matches in the Eredivisie (D2). Only Feyenoord (22) and PSV (19) earned more points than Sparta (18) in the last eight rounds.

Regardless, all four teams will be highly motivated to secure a spot in European football. For Sparta, it would be the first time since the 1985/86 season. FC Utrecht, on the other hand, has a score to settle after being knocked out by Zrinsjki Mostar in the 2019/20 season. Who will we see on the European stage next season?

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