Seeking to avoid a fourth straight league defeat, Go Ahead Eagles make the journey to the Erve Asito to take on Heracles on Sunday.
On the other hand, the home side set out to preserve their three-game unbeaten streak which is their longest run of matches without a defeat this term.
Match preview
Heracles kicked off 2022 with a share of the spoils following a goalless stalemate versus NEC at the Goffertstadion on Saturday.
Frank Wormuth's men, for all their possession and territorial advantage on the day, failed to find a way past a stubborn opposition rearguard.
The Heraclieden have moved up to 12th place in the Eredivisie table as a result, but their cushion above the drop zone still stands at five points.
Next up for the Almelo-based club is a clash versus an opposing outfit who have lost six of the last seven meetings between the teams.
However, Sunday's hosts did fall to a 4-2 defeat in October's reverse fixture and will be keen to exact revenge this weekend.
Go Ahead Eagles saw off the threat of Heerenveen to progress into the last eight of the KNVB-Beker courtesy of a 1-0 triumph on Tuesday.
Inigo Cordoba opened the scoring in the 15th minute to get the job done for Kees Van Wonderen's men at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
The Pride of the IJsel Kowet sit 11th in the league standings, two points ahead of their next opponents ahead of this weekend's contest.
Only bottom club PEC Zwolle have scored fewer goals away from home than Sunday's visitors, who have only scored six times on the road so far.
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Team News
Heracles' Kasper Jakobsen, Ismail Azzaoui and Elias Oubella are both sidelined with knee injuries and will sit out this weekend's game.
Orestis Kiomourtzoglou has scored in each of his last two home appearances, making the 23-year-old is one to keep an eye on.
Yacine Bourhane is unavailable for Go Ahead Eagles as he remains on duty with Comoros at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.
Marc Cardona and Martijn Berden are sidelined with muscle and ankle injuries respectively, ruling them out for this one.
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Blaswich; Quagliata, Knoester, Sonnenberg, Fadiga; Schoofs, De la Torre, Kiomourtzoglou; Basacikoglu, Bakis, Laursen
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Hahn; Lucassen, Nauber, Bakker; Deijl, Oratmangoen, Brouwers, Kuipers; Cordoba, Lidberg, Heil
We say: Heracles 2-1 Go Ahead Eagles
There is little to choose between the sides and either of them could end up claiming all three points this weekend. However, we fancy the hosts to just edge out their visitors in what should be a tight affair.
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 Heracles win with a probability of 55.21%. A draw had a probability of 24.1% and a win for Go Ahead Eagles had a probability of 20.66%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heracles win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.33%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.4%) and 2-1 (9.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.46%), while for a Go Ahead Eagles win it was 0-1 (6.8%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood.
