Two teams with European aspirations face off against each other as FC Twente and Feyenoord clash at the Grolsch Veste Stadium on Sunday.
The sides come into this one on the back of respective victories last time out, and each of them will be looking to build on that.
Match preview
© Reuters
Twente finally ended a run of six league games without a win courtesy of a 2-0 victory against fourth-placed Vitesse at the GelreDome on Sunday.
Ron Jans's men opened the scoring after just 15 minutes through Queensy Menig's seventh goal of the season and from then on, it was a case of holding on to their lead.
Notwithstanding, they went on to add to that advantage in the final minute of the game thanks to Thijs van Leeuwen's strike, which came within two minutes of him coming off the bench.
The Tukkers have now moved above Utrecht into seventh place on the log, and they are now just four points adrift of Groningen in sixth.
The visits of Feyenoord in recent seasons have been unpleasant for Saturday's hosts, who have lost each of the last three encounters on home turf.
© Reuters
Feyenoord put up what is arguably their best performance of the season to date as they swept aside Willem II in a 5-0 rout on Sunday.
However, Dick Advocaat's men were sent crashing down to earth three days later in their KNVB-Beker tie at Heerenveen, which they lost 4-3.
De Stadionclub were on course to progress into the semi-final after they fought back from a goal down to take a 3-1 lead right on the hour mark.
Shockingly, they conceded three times in the final 10 minutes and as a result, they will not be reaching a second consecutive final in two years.
There is still work to do in the league too, with Sunday's visitors sitting fifth in the table, six points adrift of second-placed PSV Eindhoven and 12 behind leaders Ajax.
FC Twente Eredivisie form: DLDDLW
Feyenoord Eredivisie form: WLLLWW
Feyenoord form (all competitions): WLLWWL
Team News
© Reuters
Luka Ilic will miss the game as he serves the second of a three-game suspension following his sending-off at PSV Eindhoven two Saturdays ago.
In the aforementioned match, Julio Pleguezuelo sustained a knee injury that will rule him out for the remainder of the season.
Vaclav Cerny also picked up a knee injury last month against Ajax and like Pleguezuelo, his season has been prematurely ended.
Joao Teixeira has not featured for Feyenoord since the middle of December due to a leg problem, but he is close to being available for selection once again.
Steven Berghuis was given his marching orders in midweek, but he is still eligible to take part in this one, where he will look to score for a third game running.
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Drommel; Dumic, Pierie, Pleguezuelo, Smal; Zerrouki, Roemeratoe, Bosch; Menig, Danilo, Van Leeuwen
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Marsman; Geertruida, Spajic, Senesi, Malacia; Toornstra, Fer, Diemers; Berghuis, Jorgensen, Linssen
We say: FC Twente 1-2 Feyenoord
Feyenoord will fancy themselves in this one to make it three wins from three, and we back them to come out triumphant in what should be a tightly-contested affair.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
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 Feyenoord win with a probability of 50.44%. A win for FC Twente had a probability of 26.33% and a draw had a probability of 23.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Feyenoord win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.61%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.75%) and 0-2 (7.82%). The likeliest FC Twente win was 2-1 (6.62%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.76%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.9% likelihood.
