NEC and FC Twente go head-to-head at Stadion de Goffert on Saturday in round 29 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season.
Revenge will be on the agenda for the away side this weekend following a 2-1 defeat in October's reverse fixture.
Match preview
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In one of the games of the season so far, Twente and PSV Eindhoven served up a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Grolsch Veste Stadium on Saturday.
Ron Jans's men took a commanding three-goal lead after just 25 minutes through Ricky van Wolfswinkel's brace and a Michel Vlap strike but PSV rallied to secure a point through Joey Veerman, Cody Gakpo and Olivier Boscagli.
Having amassed 14 points from their last 6 outings, the Tukkers sit fifth in the Eredivisie table and are all but assured of a place in the first round of the Conference League playoffs.
Next up for the Enschede-based outfit is the challenge of an opposing side who have proven to be a tough nut to crack, as the last eight encounters between the teams have yielded four wins apiece.
Saturday's visitors are unbeaten in 12 of their 14 league games on the road this term, with their two defeats in that time coming against the current top two.
NEC ended a barren run of five games without a victory by beating fellow newcomers Cambuur 2-1 at the Cambuur Stadion on Sunday.
Rogier Meijer's men opened the scoring early on thanks to Jonathan Okita, but Mitchel Paulissen restored parity shortly afterward before Javier Vet grabbed the winner in the 78th minute.
The Eniesee have moved back into the top half of the Eredivisie table and continue to thrive since gaining promotion to the Dutch top flight.
However, their home form leaves a lot to be desired, as only bottom club PEC Zwolle have picked up fewer points on home turf than Saturday's hosts.
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Team News
Twente will make the journey to Nijmegen without the duo of Wout Brama and Kik Pierie, who are sidelined with muscle and back injuries respectively.
Ricky van Wolfswinkel is now up to 14 league goals for the campaign, his highest in a single season since netting 20 times for Vitesse back in 2017.
NEC's Rens van Eijden will miss this weekend's game through a knee problem, and the 34-year-old is joined on the treatment table by Edgar Barreto.
Pedro Ruiz remains without an appearance since November when he sustained a long-term injury in his side's 1-1 draw against AZ Alkmaar.
Javier Vet could be rewarded with a spot in the starting XI for this one after coming off the bench to good effect last time out.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Odenthal, Marquez, Guth; El Karouani, Bruijn, Schone, Bronkhorst; Mattsson, Okita, Tavsan
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Brenet, Propper, Pleguezuelo, Smal; Zerrouki, Sadilek; Rots, Vlap, Limnios; Van Wolfswinkel
We say: NEC 1-2 FC Twente
Twente head into this one on a better run of form and that momentum could come in handy. We expect a keenly-contested affair and a narrow victory for the away side come 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 NEC win with a probability of 42.04%. A win for FC Twente had a probability of 32.72% and a draw had a probability of 25.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a NEC win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.27%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.9%) and 2-0 (6.91%). The likeliest FC Twente win was 0-1 (8%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.92%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted that FC Twente would win this match.
