A stuttering FC Twente will look to return to the win column when they face off against PEC Zwolle at De Grolsch Veste in the Eredivisie on Saturday evening.
Both these sides have made underwhelming starts to the season, with the hosts currently in 11th place with four points, while the visitors are one point and two places behind them.
Match preview
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Following two consecutive seasons of challenging for a chance to feature in the Champions League, Twente finally got their opportunity this year thanks to a third-place finish in the top flight last term.
Unfortunately for The Tukkers, though, it was not to be, as they bowed out at the final stage of qualifying for Europe's elite club competition, losing 5-4 on aggregate to Red Bull Salzburg last month.
The international break was perhaps a blessing in disguise for the Reds, who have only won one of their five matches in all competitions this season, which came against NEC in the opening match of the league season.
Since then, Joseph Oosting's side failed to win their next three games, drawing against Salzburg and Sparta Rotterdam before squandering a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to Utrecht at the start of this month.
Nevertheless, the Pride of East have avoided defeat in their two home games this season, albeit both ended in draws, and they are now unbeaten in their last eight matches in all competition on home soil dating back to mid-February.
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Meanwhile, after a mixed pre-season, which included beating Ajax at home and losing to lower league Horsens a week later, PEC Zwolle got the new campaign off to a horrendous start, suffering defeat in their first three games of the new season.
Blauwvingers were beaten 1-0 by Utrecht and NEC on the road and were thumped 5-1 by Feyenoord in between those results, which saw them sat second-bottom in the standings heading into gameweek four.
However, Johnny Jansen's side seemingly snapped out their funk just before the international break by notching up their first win of the season, beating Heracles fairly comfortably 3-0 at home.
Dylan Vente, Dylan Mbayo and Filip Krastev all got on the scoresheet in that victory, with the Bulgarian picking up his second goal of the season, after scoring the side's only previous goal of the campaign against De Stadionclub.
While the visitors will surely hope to pick up from where they were before the break in league action, history suggests it will not be easy, as the side have lost each of their last four matches against this opponent and were outscored 9-3 during that time.
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Team News
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Twente have just one known injury doubt for this match in the form of Michal Sadilek, who is still on the road to recovery from a leg injury, although he could return to action by the end of this month.
Sam Lammers and Sem Steijn have both netted twice in the last four matches in all competitions and should continue to lead the line with the support of Mitchell Van Bergen and Daan Rots from midfield.
Jansen, on the other hand, could be without three players for this weekend's trip to Enschede, with Braydon Manu and Samir Lagsir flagged as injury doubts while Tristan Gooijer is ruled out until next month.
Dylan Vente came off the bench for Suriname in their loss to Guadeloupe last week and sustained a minor knock, though he has not been ruled out of contention for this match at the time of writing.
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Van Rooij, Hilgers, Bruns, Salah-Eddine; Kjolo, Vlap; Van Bergen, Rots, Steijn; Lammers
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Schendelaar; Floranus, Jensen, MacNulty, Van der Haar; Fichtinger, El Azzouzi; Velanas, Van den Berg, Krastev; Vente
We say: FC Twente 3-1 PEC Zwolle
Twente have begun the season well below the level they showed last term, but the international break would have done wonders for them, as it would have allowed time for the side to get over their Champions League disappointment and refocus on getting back toward the top of the table.
Zwolle picked up their first win of the season ahead of the break but we feel they will struggle to contain The Tukkers on their home patch in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
