RKC Waalwijk will hope to get the New Year off to a good start when they host ADO Den Haag this Saturday, after suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat against Fortuna Sittard in their last game of 2020.
Meanwhile, Den Haag are in desperate need to pick up some points, with Ruud Brood's men sitting in the relegation zone as they enter matchday 14.
Match preview
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Waalwijk currently find themselves in a bad run of form, having lost their previous three league games, including their recent defeat against Sittard.
During the match, Lisandro Semedo netted the winner late in extra time, with Fred Grim's side unfortunate to not collect at least a point.
This means that Waalwijk currently sit in 14th place in the Eredivisie table, just five points ahead of their opponents.
It is also worth noting that their defensive record has been extremely poor in recent times, with the club conceding at least two goals in their last four games.
Den Haag, on the other hand, will also be hoping to bounce back from a frustrating set of results, including their latest 2-0 loss against PEC Zwolle in December.
In fact, they have failed to win in their last 10 league matches, with their only victory being a narrow 2-1 win against VVV-Venlo back in October.
However, they did manage to beat Sparta Rotterdam on penalties in the first round of the KNVB-Beker later that month, with the team set to take part in the round-of-16 against Vitesse in two weeks.
Both sides have scored the fewest goals in the league during the 2020-21 season, each netting just 13 times thus far.
The last time they met was back in January last year, when Den Haag secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Waalwijk, with Hannes Delcroix being sent off in the latter stages of the match.
The visitors have a pretty good record against their opponents in recent times - winning their previous three games against Waalwijk, keeping a clean sheet in all three.
RKC Waalwijk Eredivisie form: LLLWWD
ADO Den Haag Eredivisie form: LLDDDL
Team News
Waalwijk fans will be pleased to know that they have no injury concerns heading into this game, with Grim expected to have a fully fit squad to choose from after the Christmas break.
The Dutch coach is expected to keep Finn Stokkers up front, after the striker scored in their latest match against Sittard.
However, he could bring Ola John back into the side, replacing Lennerd Daneels with him on the left wing.
For Den Haag, they have just two players set to miss the game, with both Shaquille Pinas and Peet Bijen out with ankle injuries.
Apart from that, Brood will also have plenty of options to choose from for their upcoming fixture.
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Lamprou; Bakari, Meulensteen, Nieuwpoort, Quasten; Van der Venne, Anita, Tahiri; Ngonge, Stokkers, John
ADO Den Haag possible starting lineup:
Koopmans; Van Ewijk, Del Fabro, Kemper, Faye; Besuijen, Pascu, De Boer; Bourard, Kramer, Kishna
We say: RKC Waalwijk 1-1 ADO Den Haag
Although Den Haag have come out victorious in their previous three meetings against Waalwijk, they have failed to pick up a single win since October. Both teams have also struggled to find the back of the net this season, therefore we predict a low-scoring draw this Saturday.
Top betting 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 RKC Waalwijk win with a probability of 52.6%. A win for ADO Den Haag had a probability of 24.43% and a draw had a probability of 23%.
The most likely scoreline for a RKC Waalwijk win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.74%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.13%) and 2-0 (8.32%). The likeliest ADO Den Haag win was 1-2 (6.27%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.69%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 5.9% likelihood.
