Gameweek 14 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season sees Emmen await the challenge of defending champions Ajax at De Oude Meerdijk on Saturday evening.
The home side set out to record consecutive wins for the first time this term, while the visitors will be looking to snap a run of two games without a victory.
Match preview
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Ajax had to settle for a share of the spoils in Wednesday's encounter against Vitesse at the Johan Cruyff ArenA which ended in a 2-2 stalemate.
Alfred Schreuder's men opened the scoring through Dusan Tadic before goals in either half from Million Manhoef turned the game on its head, only for Lorenzo Lucca to restore parity in the 79th minute.
Consequently, De Godenzonen remain second in the Eredivisie table with a tally of 29 points which is one behind current leaders PSV Eindhoven.
Lying in store is the task of facing off against an opposing side who have lost each of the seven previous meetings between the teams by a combined score of 30-2.
In their final outing before the World Cup gets underway on November 20, Saturday's visitors will be aiming to put on a show away from home where they have come out on top in all but one of their six league matches.
Emmen picked up their first league win since August courtesy of a narrow 1-0 victory over Fortuna Sittard at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion on Saturday.
The game was decided two minutes shy of the hour mark when Richairo Zivkovic broke the deadlock to hand Dick Lukkien's men a hard-fought three points.
With 10 points from 13 matches so far, the Kannibals have moved up to 16th place in the league standings and are now just two points adrift of safety.
Having suffered defeat in just one of 13 home matches across all competitions since March 1, Saturday's hosts have proven themselves to be a tough nut to crack in front of their fans.
Team News
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Twenty-year-old Mohammed Ihattaren remains ruled out of contention for Ajax as he continues his spell on the sidelines with a long-term injury.
Owen Wijndal made his return to action against Vitesse in midweek, but Daley Blind is expected to come back into the starting XI for Saturday's contest, where Edson Alvarez is also in line to be recalled having served a one-game ban last time out.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo Lucca will be pushing for a place in the lineup here after coming off the bench to good effect in each of the last two matches.
Emmen's Maikel Kieftenbeld suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament back in August, and the Dutchman is out until the end of the 2022-23 season.
The home side are also set to be without the services of Mart Lieder and Jeff Hardeveld, who are both currently battling with knee injuries.
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Burnet, Veldmate, Araujo, Bouchouari; Veendorp, Bernadou; Mendes, Diemers, Romeny; Zivkovic
Ajax possible starting lineup:
Pasveer; Rensch, Timber, Bassey, Blind; Alvarez, Taylor, Berghuis; Bergwijn, Kudus, Tadic
We say: Emmen 0-3 Ajax
Ajax's absolute dominance in this fixture means that it is hard to foresee any other outcome than a win for them. We are backing the away side to come away with all three points in style.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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