NEC and PEC Zwolle draw the curtain on gameweek 30 of the 2023-24 Eredivisie season with a meeting at Stadion de Goffert on Sunday evening.
Both teams head into this one having emerged victorious from their most recent outings and will be looking to pick up where they left off.
Match preview
NEC made it two wins from their last three matches thanks to a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Vitesse at the GelreDome on Sunday afternoon.
Rogier Meijer's men opened the scoring through Mees Hoedemakers before two goals from Sontje Hansen late on put the result beyond doubt.
Consequently, the Eniesee have moved up to fifth place in the Eredivisie table, six points behind AZ Alkmaar in the race for the final guaranteed European spot.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams over the last five meetings, which have yielded two wins apiece and one share of the spoils.
Aiming to pick up what would be a 10th straight home win across all competitions, Sunday's hosts have turned their turf into a fortress of late and will take some stopping here.
PEC Zwolle snapped a dismal eight-game winless streak by narrowly beating SBV Excelsior 2-1 at the MAC3PARK Stadion on Saturday evening.
Goals in either half from Anselmo MacNulty and Odysseus Velanas got the job done for Johnny Jansen's men despite Lance Duijvestijn's consolation strike four minutes from time.
With 31 points picked up from 29 matches so far, De Blauwvingers sit 14th in the standings and are now a whopping seven points clear of relegation danger.
Having shipped 10 goals across their last three away matches, Sunday's visitors will need to tighten up at the back to stand any chance of a positive result here.
Team News
Samir Lagsir, Ferdy Druijf and Ryan Thomas will not play any part for Zwolle this weekend as they continue to battle with respective knee injuries.
Dutch duo Zico Buurmeester and Nick Fichtinger are also ruled out of contention for the away side due to ankle and leg injuries respectively.
Kas de Wit and Dirk Proper remain guaranteed absentees for NEC Nijmegen here, with the latter yet to feature since the final week of February.
Forward Bas Dost is also sidelined for the away side due to a heart problem, while 19-year-old Yvandro Sanches misses out with a damaged knee.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; Baas, Nuytinck, Sandler, Pereira; Sano, Hoedemakers; Larsen, Chery, Gonzalez; Ogawa
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Schendelaar; Van Polen, Kersten, Lam, Garcia; El Azzouzi, Krastev; Namli, Velanas, Reijnders; Thy
We say: NEC 2-0 PEC Zwolle
NEC head into this one on a high and will back themselves to secure a positive outcome on home turf. We fancy the hosts to get the better of their visitors and secure maximum points in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
