Two teams looking to steer clear of the drop zone face off in matchday 25 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season as Emmen welcome SBV Excelsior to De Oude Meerdijk on Saturday.
The hosts set out to avoid a seventh defeat in eight matches, while their visitors will be aiming to end a run of seven games without a victory.
Match preview
Emmen were on the receiving end of a 3-1 loss against FC Volendam in Saturday's relegation six-pointer between the sides at the Kras Stadion.
Dick Lukkien's men took the lead through a Filip Stankovic own goal before late strikes from Benaissa Benamar, Bilal Ould-Chikh and Daryl van Mieghem turned the contest on its head.
As a result, the Kannibals have missed the opportunity to move out of the bottom three and remain 16th in the Eredivisie table, two points adrift of safety.
Awaiting them next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have only lost one of the most recent six editions of this fixture, winning four of the other five.
Unbeaten in all but one of their last 11 matches on home turf, Saturday's hosts will be confident of picking up a positive result in this weekend's affair.
SBV Excelsior fell to a comprehensive 4-1 defeat against Sparta Rotterdam in Saturday's encounter between the sides at Van Donge & De Roo Stadion.
Marinus Dijkhuizen's men fell behind to Redouan el Yaakoubi's own goal but managed to level matters through Couhaib Driouech, after which second-half goals from Koki Saito, Tobias Lauritsen and Bart Vriends decided the clash.
Having amassed just four points from nine matches in 2023, the Kralingers sit 15th in the league standings and are now just two points clear of relegation.
Off the back of six straight away losses by a combined score of 14-1, Saturday's visitors have it all to do as they look to avoid coming away empty-handed from another outing on the road.
Team News
Emmen's trio of Jeff Hardeveld, Mart Lieder and Maikel Kieftenbeld are currently down with knee injuries, ruling them unfit to participate in Saturday's game.
Oussama Darfalou and Lorenzo Burnet also miss out for the home side through injury, and they are joined on the treatment table by Metehan Guclu.
Kik Pierie, Vicente Besuijen and Yassine Ayoub remain sidelined for Excelsior through muscle injuries, while Jacky Donkor is still unavailable with a knee problem.
Twenty-five-year-old Maxime Awoudja is currently battling with a niggling hamstring problem and is now set to miss a third game on the bounce.
Marouan Azarkan was hauled off with an injury scare eight minutes into his side's last outing, making the Dutch forward a doubt for this one.
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Dirksen, Vos, Te Wierik, Veendorp; Vlak, Bernadou; Antonisse, Diemers, Romeny; Zivkovic
SBV Excelsior possible starting lineup:
Van Gassel; Horemans, El Yaakoubi, Seymor, Tjoe; Koopmeiners, Goudmijn; Driouech, Naujoks, Lamprou; Agrafiotis
We say: Emmen 1-0 SBV Excelsior
The teams have been largely underwhelming in front of goal of late, so a low-scoring affair could be on the cards here. That said, we are backing the home side to narrowly come out on top at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
