Feyenoord visit the Abe Lenstra Stadion to face off against Heerenveen on Wednesday looking to get back to winning ways off the back of consecutive defeats.
Meanwhile, the hosts come into the game having won each of their last two games and are without defeat in their most recent seven outings.
Match preview
© Reuters
Feyenoord suffered a first league defeat since October on Sunday following a 2-0 loss to reigning champions Ajax.
A Marcos Senesi own goal in the penultimate minute of the first half saw Arne Slot's men trail heading into the break after which Dusan Tadic put the result beyond doubt from 12 yards.
De Stadionclub have now fallen three and four points behind Ajax and PSV Eindhoven respectively midway through the season but there is still plenty of time to recover that gap.
Standing in their way next is the challenge of an opposing side who have managed to claim just three wins in the last 14 meetings between the teams dating back to 2016.
However, Wednesday's visitors have been beaten on each of their last two trips to the hosts, conceding seven goals in that time and scoring just three.
Heerenveen fended off the threat of Cambuur to claim a hard-fought 2-1 triumph when the teams squared up on Sunday.
Henk Veerman opened the scoring from the penalty spot but that lead was wiped out on the half-hour mark thanks to Roberts Uldrikis, before Verrman decided the game with his second of the contest seven minutes from time.
Johnny Jansen's men have now climbed into the top half of the Eredivisie table and are just three points shy of the European playoff places.
However, De Superfriezen will need to improve at the attacking end of the pitch as only three of the sides outside the relegation zone have found the back of the net on fewer occasions.
- D
- W
- D
- W
- D
- W
- W
- D
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
- D
- L
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Erwin Mulder has not featured for Heerenveen since October due to a finger injury, while defender Pawel Bochniewicz continues to nurse a knee injury.
Joey Veerman has scored in two of the last three editions of this fixture and will be looking to come up trumps for the hosts once again.
Feyenoord's Denzell Hall remains without an appearance this term due to an ankle problem and remains his side's only absentee for Wednesday's game.
Bryan Linssen is on his joint longest goal drought of the season coming into this one having gone three games without finding the back of net.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mous; Van Beek, Bakker, Kaib, Van Ewijk; J.Veerman, Madsen, Kongolo; Halilovic, H.Veerman, Stevanovic
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Bijlow; Malacia, Senesi, Trauner, Pedersen; Kokcu, Til, Aursnes; Jahanbakhsh, Sinisterra, Linssen
We say: Heerenveen 1-2 Feyenoord
Both sides have every right to believe they can come out on top in this one, which should make for an exciting affair. We expect an open and end-to-end contest with the away team narrowly edging out their hosts at the end of the 90 minutes.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
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 Feyenoord win with a probability of 57.26%. A draw had a probability of 21.8% and a win for Heerenveen had a probability of 20.89%.
The most likely scoreline for a Feyenoord win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.91%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (9.33%) and 0-2 (9.08%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.18%), while for a Heerenveen win it was 2-1 (5.56%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 5.9% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Feyenoord would win this match.
