Two sides that earned promotion to the top flight last season will meet in the Eredivisie this weekend when Almere City take on Heracles at Yanmar Stadion on Sunday afternoon.
The hosts are currently in 11th place in the league standings with 13 points after 12 matches, while the visitors are in 13th and trailing their opponents by just a single point.
Match preview
After a very poor start to the 2023-24 Eredivisie season, Almere City seemed to have found their best form leading up to the international break and will be looking to pick up from where they left off in this one.
The Black Sheep showed tremendous resilience in their last match, forcing a 2-2 draw against Ajax, with Thomas Robinet scoring the leveller from the penalty spot in stoppage time to earn his side a hard-fought point.
With that result, Alex Pastoor saw his side extend their solid run of results to seven matches unbeaten in all competitions, which included a massive 8-1 victory over OJC Rosmalen in the KNVB Cup and a 2-1 win against Sparta Rotterdam a week later.
The hosts are also unbeaten in their last three home matches, keeping two clean sheets in that time, while they beat this opponent at this venue last October when they met in the Eerste Divisie.
While there are plenty of positives to point out for Almere, they do need to find a way to improve their attacking output as they have only found the net 12 times this season, which is the fourth-lowest total in the league behind RKC Waalwijk, Vitesse and Utrecht.
Meanwhile, after edging out PEC Zwolle by the slenderest of margins for the Eerste Divisie title last season, Heracles have endured the worst start of the three newly promoted sides this term in the top flight.
HAFC have recorded three wins, three draws and six losses so far this season and trail this opponent by two places, while PEC Zwolle are five spots and two points above them in the league standings.
The visitors suffered a 4-1 defeat to Fortuna Sittard before the international break, which followed a 6-0 thumping from PSV, leaving them with the league's worst record of 32 goals conceded this season.
However, with the mid-table still being very compact and just three points separating them from Excelsior in seventh place, John Lammers will know that a few positive results could see his side fly up the rankings before Christmas.
Team News
Faiz Mattoir, who made a very promising start last season, is still recovering from a long-term cruciate ligament injury and is expected to miss a large chunk of this season as well.
Milan Corryn (knock), Sherel Floranus (ankle) and Hamdi Akujobi (knee) are also ruled out of this match through injury, while Theo Barbet could be eligible for selection after missing the last four matches if he passes a late fitness test.
Diego van Oorschot only played 14 minutes this season and is likely to be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign and possibly even longer due to a broken leg.
Nikolai Laursen (cruciate ligament) and Jizz Hornkamp (ankle) are on the treatment table for the foreseeable future, while defender Justin Hoogma will serve the second of his three-match ban after receiving a straight red against PSV earlier this month.
Almere City possible starting lineup:
Bakker; Van de Kamp, Jacobs, Van Bruggen, Soh, Royo; Koopmeiners, Robinet, Resink; Van La Parra, Hansen
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Brouwer; Wieckhoff, Cestic, Bultman, Roosken, De Keersmaecker, Scheperman; Ouahim, Bruns, Hansson; Engels
We say: Almere City 2-2 Heracles
These sides were in contrasting forms ahead of the international break, with the hosts unbeaten in five while the visitors were winless over the same period. For Heracles, the break could not have come at a better time, as it would have given them a chance to reset and address their shortcomings heading into the busy period.
We are expecting a free-flowing match here but feel that these sides will have to settle for a share of the spoils at the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Devesh Jaganath
