Looking to both pick up back to back league victories, NEC and Vitesse face off at the Stadion de Goffert in round nine of the Eredivisie season on Sunday.
The teams are separated by just two points and two places in the Eredivisie table which should make for an absorbing affair this weekend.
Match preview
Vitesse saw off the threat of Feyenoord in a hard-fought 2-1 victory at GelreDome a fortnight ago to pick up their first three points on home turf this term.
Lois Openda was the star of the show, scoring two goals either side of Guus Til's leveller to hand Thomas Letsch's men all three points.
Having amassed seven of the last nine points available, Vitas have now moved into the top half of the standings and are just three points off Willem II in fourth place.
Next up for the Arnhem-based club is a first meeting in five years against an opposing side who have proven to be a tough nut to crack, avoiding defeat in 11 of the last 18 meetings.
With a crunch Conference League group-stage clash versus Tottenham Hotspur to follow four days later, Sunday's visitors will be keen to put on a show to give them confidence ahead of Thursday's contest.
NEC Nijmegen ended a run of four games without a win with a 3-1 victory over Fortuna Sittard at the Fortuna-Sittard Stadion on October 3.
Goals from Jonathan Okita and Elayis Tavsan put Rogier Meijer's men in the box seat before Mats Seuntjens halved the deficit, only for Jordy Bruijn to grab a second-half clincher.
The Eniesee are in 10th place heading into this weekend's contest and would move into the top half should they manage to claim all three points.
Sunday's hosts suffered a 5-4 friendly loss versus German outfit VFL Bochum last Thursday and will want to get back to winning ways in front of their fans.
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Team News
Matus Bero and Thomas Buitink received their marching orders in the final knockings of the visitors' last involvement and are ineligible to participate in this weekend's game.
Off the back of his heroics last time out, Lois Openda heads into the clash with the wind in his sails having opened his account for the season.
Vitesse will also have to cope with the absence of Oussama Tannane who is suspended, while Markus Schubert and Daan Reiziger miss out through muscle and shoulder injuries respectively.
Rens van Eijden is set to sit out a 12th fixture on the bounce as he remains ruled out with a knee problem which he picked up back in May.
Nineteen-year-old Mathias De Wolf is not expected to feature for the home side due to a muscle injury, but he is increasingly close to a return to action.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Barreto, Odenthal, Marquez; Van Rooij, Schone, Bruijn, El Karouani; Mattsson, Akman, Okita
Vitesse possible starting lineup:
Houwen; Doekhi, Bazoer, Rasmussen; Wittek, Tronstad, Gboho, Vroegh, Dasa; Openda, Darfalou
We say: NEC 1-2 Vitesse
Vitesse have been in imperious form of late and will be confident of continuing their good run of form and while the hosts have shown that they are no pushovers, we are backing the visitors to emerge victorious.
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 Vitesse win with a probability of 39.61%. A win for NEC had a probability of 33.28% and a draw had a probability of 27.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Vitesse win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.98%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.37%) and 0-2 (7.16%). The likeliest NEC win was 1-0 (9.87%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.85%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 11% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Vitesse in this match.
