Round 22 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season gets underway on Friday when RKC Waalwijk welcome Fortuna Sittard to the Mandemakers Stadion.
The hosts will be aiming to bounce back from a first defeat in five matches last time out, while their visitors go in search of consecutive wins for the first time since the turn of the year.
Match preview
Waalwijk fell to a comprehensive 3-1 defeat against defending champions Ajax in the sides' encounter at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on Sunday evening.
Joseph Oosting's men took a shock lead in the 17th minute through Mats Seuntjens before second-half strikes from Brian Brobbey, Jurrien Timber and Mohammed Kudus turned the game on its head.
As a result, RKC continue to occupy ninth place in the Eredivisie table, seven points behind FC Utrecht in the race for the final European spot.
Next up is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have only lost one of the most recent eight clashes between the teams across all competitions.
However, Friday's hosts are unbeaten in eight of their last nine games on home turf, and they will back themselves to come away with a positive result.
Fortuna Sittard came out on top on enemy territory for the second match running courtesy of a 1-0 triumph over FC Emmen at De Oude Meerdijk on Saturday.
Off the back of a relatively uneventful 45 minutes, Oguzhan Ozyakup opened the scoring in the 76th minute, and that was enough to hand Julio Velazquez's men all three points.
With 26 points from their 21 league outings so far, the Fortunezen have now moved up to 10th place in the standings, level on points with their next opponents.
Having emerged victorious in their last two outings on the road leading up to Friday's affair, the visitors set out to get the job done away from home once again.
Team News
Roel Janssen was fit enough to be named on Fortuna's bench last time out, and the Dutchman could make his return to action following a brief injury layoff.
Meanwhile, Ximo Navarro remains out of contention for the visitors due to a muscle problem, which is set to keep him out of a third consecutive match.
Waalwijk's Mika Biereth continues to battle with a hamstring injury, and the 20-year-old is not expected to play any part in Friday's affair.
Midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup will be looking to deliver the goods for his side here after he recently ended a 12-game goal drought against Emmen.
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Vaessen; Lutonda, Van den Buijs, Adewoye, Gaari, Lelieveld; Clement, Anita, Bel Hassani; Lobete, Seuntjens
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Pandur; Vita, Siovas, Guth, Erdogan; Ferati, Bistrovic; Embalo, Ozyakup, Cordoba; Yilmaz
We say: RKC Waalwijk 1-0 Fortuna Sittard
Both teams have been defensively solid of late, so we are expecting a low-scoring affair in this one. That said, we are also backing the home side to just about get the job done at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
