Winless in their last four league outings, NEC play host to PSV Eindhoven at the Gofferstadion on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the away side will be looking to pick themselves up following a defeat in Europe last time out.
Match preview
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PSV were dumped out of the Europa League courtesy of a 3-0 defeat to Real Sociedad at the Reale Arena on Thursday.
Two goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and a late Alexander Sorloth strike put Roger Schmidt's men to the sword in Spain.
However, the Rood-witten saw off the threat of Utrecht in their last league involvement on Saturday when they claimed a 4-1 victory.
Currently third on the log behind the duo of Ajax and Feyenoord, Sunday's visitors know that there is little margin for error if they are to be crowned champions in May.
Their next assignment comes against an opposing side who have lost each of the last seven meetings between the teams.
NEC suffered a second straight defeat following a 2-1 loss to Waalwijk at the Mandemakers Stadion on Sunday.
Despite opening the scoring through Jordy Bruijn, Rogier Meijer's men failed to hold on to their lead as goals from Jens Odgaard and Roy Kuijpers turned the game on its head.
The Eniesee have dropped to 11th place on the log as a result but are still only two points shy of the top half.
Having managed just eight points from their seven home games to date, Sunday's hosts will need to get going in front of their fans to turn their fortunes around.
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Team News
Cody Gakpo (ankle), Jordan Teze (muscle), Richard Ledezma (knee) and Noni Madueke (thigh) are all ruled out of this weekend's contest.
PSV will also be without the services of Mees Kreekels and Nigel Thomas, who are both down with knee injuries.
NEC will take to the field without the services of veteran defender Rens van Eijden, who remains sidelined with a knee injury.
Mathias De Wolf is also not expected to feature for the home side due to a muscle injury, and he is joined on the treatment table by 19-year-old Joep van Sluijs.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Barreto, Odenthal, Marquez; Van Rooij, Schone, Bruijn, El Karouani; Tavsan, Akman, Okita
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Drommel; Max, Boscagli, Ramalho, Mwene; Sangare, Van Ginkel, Gotze; Vinicius, Doan, Bruma
We say: NEC 1-2 PSV Eindhoven
PSV boast a significantly better squad and will back themselves to come out on top in this one, and while we expect the home side to give a good account of themselves, we fancy the away side to get the job done.
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 PSV Eindhoven win with a probability of 53.61%. A win for NEC had a probability of 23.83% and a draw had a probability of 22.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a PSV Eindhoven win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.78%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.87%) and 0-2 (8.31%). The likeliest NEC win was 2-1 (6.15%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.44%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 9.8% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted a 1-2 win for PSV Eindhoven in this match.
