Seeking an immediate response to respective defeats last time out, Heracles and RKC Waalwijk draw the curtain on round seven of the Eredivisie season with their meeting at the Erve Asito on Sunday.
Both teams currently find themselves at the wrong end of the table following far from ideal starts to the new campaign, and they will be looking to turn a corner.
Match preview
Off the back of an 3-2 victory over AZ Alkmaar on Sunday, Heracles were sent crashing down to earth on Thursday following a 2-1 defeat to Cambuur.
Goals from Michael Breij and Mees Hoedemakers saw Frank Wormuth's men trail by two, before Sinan Bakis halved the deficit in the final minute of normal time.
The Heraclieden have now lost three of five outings this term and are just outside the relegation zone on goal difference heading into this weekend's fixture.
Lying in store next for them is a crunch clash versus an opposing side who came out on top in both of last season's league meetings by a combined score of 4-0.
However, Sunday's hosts did claim an emphatic 4-1 victory when the teams last faced off in a pre-season friendly back in July and will be keen to repeat the feat.
Waalwijk suffered a second home defeat in a row on Tuesday when they were beaten 2-1 by high-flying Willem II at the Mandemakers Stadion.
Kwasi Okyere Wriedt and Mats Kohlert both got on the scoresheet early in the second half to leave Joseph Oosting's men with a mountain to climb, before Melle Meulensteen pulled one back for his side in the fourth minute of added time.
RKC are one point and two places above this weekend's opponents having failed to record a win since defeating AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in the opening round of matches.
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Team News
Kasper Jakobsen has not featured for the home side since the opening weekend as the 23-year-old continues to battle with a knee injury.
Sinan Bakis came off the bench to score his side's only goal of the game last time out, and he could be rewarded with a starting spot this time.
Luuk Wouters was fit enough to be named amongst the substitutes in midweek, but the Dutch defender is not expected to be given the nod right from the off.
Portuguese goalkeeper Joel Pereira is set to sit out a fifth game on the spin owing to a hernia problem, while David Min misses out through a knee injury.
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Blaswich; Quagliata, Knoester, Rente, Fadiga; De La Torre, Schoofs, Vloet; Basacikoglu, Burgzorg, Bakis
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Vaessen; Touba, Meulensteen, Gaari, Buttner; Anita, Azhil, Bel Hassani; Odgaard, Bakari, Kramer
We say: Heracles 1-0 RKC Waalwijk
The teams are low on confidence heading into this one, so we expect a nervy and cagey contest with relatively little goalmouth action. We are also backing the hosts to just edge their visitors by a narrow margin and come away with all three points.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Heracles win with a probability of 51.66%. A draw had a probability of 24.4% and a win for RKC Waalwijk had a probability of 23.97%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heracles win was 1-0 with a probability of 11%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.63%) and 2-0 (9.16%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.57%), while for a RKC Waalwijk win it was 0-1 (6.96%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 11% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Heracles in this match.
