Round 21 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season kicks off with a meeting between AZ Alkmaar and SBV Excelsior at the AFAS Stadion on Friday evening.
The home side will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing cup defeat in midweek, while their visitors set out to end a three-game winless run.
Match preview
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AZ Alkmaar were dumped out of the KNVB Beker on Tuesday courtesy of a narrow 2-1 loss against FC Utrecht in the sides' round-of-16 encounter.
Pascal Jansen's men fell behind to Nick Viergever's opener just shy of the hour mark but managed to draw level through Jesper Karlsson four minutes from the end of the normal time, only for Naoki Maeda to grab the winner in extra time.
Prior to that, the Cheeseheads played out a 1-1 stalemate against Volendam which left them second in the Eredivisie table, two points behind division leaders Feyenoord.
Next up is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams, as the most recent 10 clashes have yielded four wins apiece and two draws.
Off the back of a first home defeat in 2023, Friday's hosts will be keen to avoid back-to-back losses in front of their fans for the first time in over a year.
Excelsior showed great resolve to snap a run of two straight defeats with a goalless draw against RKC Waalwijk at Van Donge & De Roo Stadion on Saturday.
Despite being on the back foot for large spells of the contest, Marinus Dijkhuizen's men held firm to come away with a well-deserved point.
As a result, the Kralingers have now moved four points clear of the drop zone, but they still remain 14th in the league standings having picked up 20 points from as many games.
Following defeats in each of their last four outings on the road by a combined score of 6-1, Tuesday's visitors set out to get themselves back on track away from home.
Team News
Riechedly Bazoer and Sam Beukema are still unavailable as they continue to battle with knee injuries, while Zinho Vanheusden also misses out through injury.
Bruno Martins Indi has not featured since September due to a long-term hip injury, and the 31-year-old is also out of contention for the home side.
Vangelis Pavlidis put on a man-of-the-match performance in the last game involving Tuesday's opponents, making the forward one to keep an eye on.
Excelsior's Yassine Ayoub is set to sit out an eighth successive game due to an injury which the Morocco international picked up earlier this year.
The visitors will also be without the services of Jacky Donkor and Kik Pierie who are currently nursing knee and muscle problems respectively.
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Ryan; Kerkez, Hatzidiakos, Goes, Sugawara; Clasie, Reijnders; Van Brederode, Karlsson, Odgaard; Pavlidis
SBV Excelsior possible starting lineup:
Van Gassel; Nieuwpoort, Goudmijn, Tjoe, Horemans; Driouech, El Yaakoubi; Koopmeiners, Azarkan, Kharchouch; Lamprou
We say: AZ Alkmaar 3-1 SBV Excelsior
Having now gone three games across all competitions without a victory, AZ will need to return to winning ways as soon as possible to avoid losing any more ground in the title race. We are tipping them to cruise to all three points at the sound of the final whistle here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
