Fresh off the back of opening-day victories last time out, Heerenveen and RKC Waalwijk lock horns at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Saturday.
Both teams are in search of a second consecutive triumph to maintain their 100% start to the 2021-22 Eredivisie season.
Match preview
Waalwijk got their league campaign off and running with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar at the Mandemakers Stadion on Sunday.
Michiel Kramer came up with the game's decisive moment as he broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time to secure an impressive victory for Joseph Oosting's men.
That was just RKC's third win in 12 years over AZ, which should give them huge belief going into this weekend's encounter.
Once again, Saturday's hosts have a poor record against their next opponents, winning just one of the 11 previous clashes in all competitions.
However, they did avoid defeat in both of last season's meetings and will aim to pick up another feather in their cap for the second week running.
Heerenveen were involved in this season's Eredivisie curtain-raiser where they claimed a 1-0 victory over Go Ahead Eagles on Friday.
Tibor Halilovic opened the scoring with less than 10 minutes played, and that was enough to get Johnny Jansen's men off to a good start.
De Superfriezen have picked up both of their last two league wins away from home and have not come out on top on their own turf since a 2-0 victory over the now-relegated ADO Den Haag in March.
With fans now back in the stadium, Saturday's hosts will be looking to give them reason to cheer at the end of the 90 minutes.
- W
- L
- W
- L
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- L
- W
Team News
Michiel Kramer got off to a perfect start by scoring the winner on his Waalwijk debut last time out, and comes into Saturday's game with fire in his belly.
In what was also his first outing for the visitors, Joel Pereira put in a man-of-the-match performance as he made crucial saves to preserve his side's lead.
Polish defender Pawel Bochniewicz is ruled out with a knee problem which he picked up in Heerenveen's pre-season friendly versus Zwolle.
Tibor Halilovic has now netted in three of his last four matches on the road, and this weekend's hosts will hope that he can replicate such form on home turf.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mulder; Kaib, Dresevic, Van Beek, Van Ewijk; J.Veerman, Halilovic, Kongolo; Van der Heide, H.Veerman, Van Bergen
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Pereira; Lutonda, Touba, Meulensteen, Gaari; Buttner, Azhil, Van der Venne; Bel Hassani, Bakari, Kramer
We say: Heerenveen 2-1 RKC Waalwijk
Both teams will see this weekend's game as a winnable one, and rightly so, which should make for an interesting affair. The home side have the edge due to their record in previous clashes, and we are tipping them to claim a narrow victory.
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 Heerenveen win with a probability of 55.28%. A win for RKC Waalwijk had a probability of 22.85% and a draw had a probability of 21.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heerenveen win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.41%) and 2-0 (8.24%). The likeliest RKC Waalwijk win was 1-2 (5.95%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 3.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Heerenveen would win this match.
