Seeking to bounce back from respective defeats in their last outings, FC Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles face off at the Stadion Galgenwaard on Saturday.
The sides are currently separated by six points and as many places in the Eredivisie table, which should make for an enthralling contest.
Match preview
Utrecht suffered a third straight loss away from home on Saturday when PSV Eindhoven ran out 4-1 winners in the sides' meeting at the Philips Stadion.
Rene Hake's men opened the scoring in the 12th minute through Mike van der Hoorn before conceding goals to Cody Gakpo, Andre Ramalho, Ritsu Doan and Philipp Mwene.
The Domstedelingen remain fourth on the log but have now fallen eight points behind the 'big three' at the top of the standings.
Their next task sees them go up against an opposing side who they have beaten in five of the last six clashes while recording shut-outs in four of those matches.
Currently boasting the third best home record in the entire division, Saturday's hosts will back themselves to continue their already-established supremacy in this fixture.
Go Ahead Eagles were beaten for the second straight home match following a 2-1 defeat to FC Twente on Sunday.
Despite taking the lead through Inigo Cordoba six minutes from the interval, Kees Van Wonderen's men failed to come away with anything from the contest thanks to quickfire second-half strikes from Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Ramiz Zerrouki.
With two leagues games remaining in the first half of the season, the eagles are 10th on the log, one point adrift of the top half.
Having scored the joint second-fewest goals on the road so far, Saturday's visitors have work to do at the attacking end of the pitch to stand any chance of securing a positive result.
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Team News
Utrecht's Reda Akmum and Tommy St Jago are ruled out with knee injuries, while Sylian Mokono is yet to shake off a knock.
Christopher Mamengi has spent the last five months on the sidelines and the defender will also sit out Saturday's game.
Turan Tuzlacik is ruled out through a leg injury, and the 20-year-old will not play any part for the visitors.
Bas Kuipers and Marc Cardona are also ruled out through knee injuries, while Ogechika Heil continues to battle with a muscle problem.
FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
Paes; Avest, Benamar, Janssen, Zagre; Van Overmeem, Timber; Gustafson, Ramselaar, Boussaid; Douvikas
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Hahn; Deijl, Bakker, Nauber; Lucassen; Brouwers, Idzes, Rommens; Lidberg, Oratmangoen, Berden
We say: FC Utrecht 2-1 Go Ahead Eagles
Utrecht's impeccable record on home turf makes them favourites for this one, and we expect them to live up to expectations and get the job done at the end of the 90 minutes.
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 FC Utrecht win with a probability of 64.16%. A draw had a probability of 20.1% and a win for Go Ahead Eagles had a probability of 15.71%.
The most likely scoreline for a FC Utrecht win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.74%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (10.3%) and 2-1 (9.91%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.51%), while for a Go Ahead Eagles win it was 0-1 (4.56%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 4.9% likelihood.
