Matchday nine of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season sees two teams in need of a lift face off as NEC entertain the challenge of Heerenveen at Stadion de Goffert on Saturday evening.
The hosts fell to a defeat against NAC Breda last time out, while their visitors were held to a stalemate by PEC Zwolle in their final outing just before the international break.
Match preview
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After losing each of their opening two encounters to FC Twente and AZ Alkmaar, NEC appeared to have got themselves back on track with consecutive wins over PEC Zwolle and Fortuna Sittard to end August on a high.
However, Rogier Meijer's men have since gone four games without a victory, suffering three defeats in that time after arguably their worst result of the campaign last time out, when they lost to newly-promoted Breda.
Despite playing the final 20 minutes with a man up, the Eniesse could not make their numerical advantage count and were stunned by Dominik Janosek's winner nine minutes from the end of regulation time.
Having made a strong push for Conference League football last season, NEC were tipped by many to mount another continental charge, but their underwhelming start has left them 16th in the Eredivisie table.
An opportunity to get themselves back to winning ways now lies in wait for NEC against an opposing side who managed to pick up just one point across both of last season's league meetings between the sides.
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Heerenveen have had a mixed campaign at home and on the road this season with eight points from four matches on home turf, while they still await their first points on enemy territory after four outings.
Aiming to pick up a third successive home victory, Heerenveen had to make do with a share of the spoils from their most recent meeting against PEC Zwolle, which ended in a 1-1 draw at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on October 6.
After going behind for the fifth game running courtesy of Davy van den Berg's third-minute opener, Robin van Persie's men wasted no time levelling matters through Dimitris Rallis to earn a much-needed point.
Consequently, De Superfriezen have now moved up to 15th place in the league standings, just one point clear of NEC ahead of the meeting in Nijmegen, with both teams looking to pull away from relegation danger.
Saturday's visitors follow this weekend's encounter with a home encounter against Sparta Rotterdam before taking on Derde Divisie outfit IJsselmeervogels in their first KNVB Beker involvement of the campaign.
Team News
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NEC's Philippe Sandler is set to miss a fourth game on the bounce with a muscle problem he sustained against reigning champions PSV Eindhoven in mid-September.
Twenty-two-year-old Dirk Proper also misses out through a shoulder injury as he prepares for a fairly lengthy spell on the sidelines with a potential return date early next month.
Sumer arrival Vito van Crooy was handed his first appearance for the hosts in the defeat to Breda and will now be pushing to make his full debut this weekend.
Ion Nicolaescu will not have the opportunity to add to his three goals for Heerenveen so far as he is yet to fully recuperate from a niggling abdominal problem.
Summer arrival Danilo Al-Saed is also out of contention for the visitors on Saturday, although the Iraq international is not far off a return to action at the moment.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Roefs; Verdonk, Nuytinck, Alvarez, Pereira; Schone, Hoedemakers; Ouwejan, Gonzalez, Hansen; Ogawa
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Braude, Hopland, Bochniewicz, Kohlert; Van Ee, Olsson; Trenskow, Brouwers, Sebaoui; Rallis
We say: NEC 1-0 Heerenveen
Both teams have not quite hit the heights of last season, and three points in this weekend's encounter could be the catalyst for a change in fortune going forward.
While we expect Heerenveen to put up a decent fight, we are backing NEC to narrowly edge out their visitors en route to all three points at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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