PEC Zwolle play host to Heerenveen on Friday evening looking to end their five-match winless streak in the Eredivisie.
While the home side are down in 13th position in the standings, Heerenveen still have ambitions to end the season in the top seven after losing just once in five matches.
Match preview
Sitting 12 points behind fifth-placed Vitesse with just 11 matches remaining, Heerenveen are only regarded as rank outsiders to challenge for the Europa League places.
Nevertheless, Johnny Jansen will be determined to end the season on a positive note having prevailed in just one of their last four fixtures.
Being held to a 1-1 draw by Groningen came as a considerable blow, with the sixth-placed team finding an equaliser just eight minutes from time.
While Heerenveen will not become embroiled in any kind of a relegation battle, failing to move up from 10th position has continued a frustrating period for De Superfriezen.
PEC Zwolle have endured a worse run than the visitors, collecting just two points from five matches and suffering three defeats in succession.
The latest reverse came at the hands of bottom club Emmen, who finally recorded their first win of the season after edging out Zwolle by a 3-2 scoreline.
John Stegeman has now been removed from his position in the dugout, leaving his successor with the task of ensuring that the club do not get pulled towards the bottom three.
While that should not be the case with a 10-point cushion in their favour, they are at risk of dropping down to 15th spot by the end of the weekend if they succumb to another defeat.
PEC Zwolle Eredivisie form: WDDDLL
Heerenveen Eredivisie form: LWDWLD
Heerenveen form (all competitions): WDWLWD
Team News
Zwolle will be without Pelle Clement, who is still serving a suspension after his red card against Groningen on February 13.
Reza Ghoochannejhad should come back into the starting lineup, potentially as a replacement for Eliano Reijnders.
Jansen could recall Rodney Kongolo after he took the place of Lasse Schone at half time of the draw with Groningen.
The remainder of the side could stay the same with only Ulysses Llanez set to be on the sidelines.
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Mous; Polen, Lam, Nakayama, Paal; Saymak, Strieder; Misidjan, Ghoochannejhad, Benson; Buitink
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mulder; Floranus, Dresevic, Bochniewicz, Kaib; Veerman, Halilovic, Kongolo; De Jong; Bergen, Veerman
We say: PEC Zwolle 1-3 Heerenveen
To a certain extent, both teams could be prepared to throw caution to the wind on Friday in a bid to make significant headway up the table. While we expect goals between these clubs, Heerenveen are better equipped to score the majority of them.
Top tip
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 PEC Zwolle win with a probability of 42.68%. A win for Heerenveen had a probability of 33.04% and a draw had a probability of 24.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a PEC Zwolle win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.97%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.17%) and 2-0 (6.52%). The likeliest Heerenveen win was 1-2 (7.74%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.24%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 1.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that PEC Zwolle would win this match.
