Slutsk will be looking to end a run of three games without a win when they travel to FC Minsk in the Belarusian Premier League on Monday.
Vitaliy Pavlov's side sat atop the table earlier this season after making a strong start but have now dropped to fifth, while Minsk - back in action after a two-week absence - are currently 14th in the division.
Match preview
© Reuters
Minsk have dropped to 14th position in the table, but Andrey Razin's side have two games in hand over the majority of the teams around them, while they have three in hand over the side directly above them.
Indeed, a coronavirus case within the squad meant that Minsk were unable to play either of their last two fixtures, meaning that they have not been in action since drawing 1-1 with Gorodeya on May 8.
Only 14 players reportedly returned to training on Tuesday after the quarantine period, and it is therefore a big ask for the home side to pick up a positive result on June 1.
Minsk made a strong start to the campaign as they picked up back-to-back wins, but the capital outfit have only been victorious in one of their last six, suffering four defeats in the process.
Slutsk, meanwhile, will enter the match off the back of a three-game winless run. As mentioned, they were actually top of the table earlier this season after making a strong start but two defeats and one draw in their last three outings has seen them drop into fifth.
Pavlov's side are only five points off leaders BATE Borisov, though, while they are the second-highest goalscorers in the division this term with 16, which is an indication of their output thus far.
Slutsk have not finished higher than eighth since returning to the top flight in 2014 but have shown that they are certainly capable of pushing up the division this season.
It is now almost a month since they last picked up all three points in a league fixture, though, and their supporters will certainly be expecting a response in Monday's fixture.
Minsk Belarusian Premier League form: LLLWLD
Slutsk Belarusian Premier League form: WWWLLD
Head To Head
Minsk have been victorious in nine of the last 15 fixtures between the two sides, with Slutsk picking up just four victories and the further two matches finishing all square.
Razin's side recorded a 1-0 victory when they last locked horns back in November, but Slutsk were 1-0 winners when they locked horns in the reverse match last June.
Slutsk also have a recent away victory to their name in this particular fixture, running out 2-0 winners when they travelled to Minsk in May 2018.
We say: Minsk 0-2 Slutsk
The fact that Minsk have not been in action since May 8 could play into Slutsk's hands as the home side's preparations have been far from ideal. The head-to-head record favours Minsk, but we fancy the visitors to pick up all three points in relatively routine fashion.
Matt Law
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 FC Minsk win with a probability of 41.27%. A win for Slutsk had a probability of 33.9% and a draw had a probability of 24.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a FC Minsk win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.61%) and 2-0 (6.53%). The likeliest Slutsk win was 1-2 (7.87%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.63%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 8.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that FC Minsk would win this match.
