Standard Liege will welcome Zulte Waregem to the Stade Maurice Dufrasne on Sunday with the hosts aiming to bounce back after losing their last two games in all competitions.
The visitors enter the contest in 16th position in the Belgian Pro League with only one point separating themselves and the relegation playoff spot.
Match preview
The hosts have endured a tough week after suffering consecutive defeats, but they will be aiming to finish the year on a high note.
Last weekend, a Mathieu Maertens brace condemned Standard Liege to a 2-1 away defeat against OH Leuven, and their week took a turn for the worse when they were eliminated from the Belgian Cup on Wednesday.
In midweek, Standard Liege travelled to Gent for a cup quarter-final and after going behind courtesy of Sven Kums opener, the visitors restored parity thanks to Aron Donnum's equaliser, but a brace from Tarik Tissoudali helped Gent to a 3-1 victory.
As they turn their attention back to league matters, Luka Elsner's side will aim to improve on their current position, which sees them head into Sunday's fixture in 12th place.
Although they are only three points clear of their opponents, Standard Liege will be confident of gaining all three points of Sunday given the fact that they are unbeaten in their last four home games across all competitions.
Zulte Waregem are only a point clear of the relegation playoff place, but they would have been relieved to have ended a run of three consecutive defeats last weekend when they prevailed 3-2 at home against KV Mechelen.
In that fixture, the hosts trailed on two occasions as Kerim Mrabti opened the scoring for the visitors before Jelle Vossen equalised, but Mechelen retook the lead in the 74th minute through Nikola Storm.
With all hope seemingly lost, Zulte Waregem responded in the first minute of stoppage time thanks to Dion De Neve's effort, and Jean-Luc Dompe scored a dramatic winner in the fourth minute of added time to snatch all three points.
Sunday's visitors will hope to build upon that impressive comeback this weekend, but if they are to collect consecutive victories then they will need to overcome their recent struggles on the road.
They enter the encounter winless in their last six away league games, having only picked up two points in that period.
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Team News
The hosts will be without the services of Abdoul Tapsoba, who picked up an injury in last weekend's encounter with Leuven.
Collins Fai was left on the bench for the cup tie in midweek, but the defender is likely to return to the starting lineup for Sunday's contest.
Both Selim Amallah and Nicolas Raskin returned from suspension to feature in midweek, and they are expected to retain their place in the side.
As for Zulte Waregem, Abdoulaye Sissako and Joost van Aken are both likely to miss the fixture due to injury issues.
The visitors could name an unchanged side from the one that started against Mechelen last weekend.
Vossen has top-scored for Zulte Waregem in the league this season, and he will look to add to his 12-goal tally on Sunday.
Standard Liege possible starting lineup:
Bodart; Fai, Dussenne, Lafis, Nkounkou; Raskin, Bokadi, Bastien; Donnum, Amallah, Klauss
Zulte Waregem possible starting lineup:
Bossut; Ciranni, Pletinckx, Humphreys, De Bock; Seck, Boya, Fadera; Kutesa, Dompe, Vossen
We say: Standard Liege 2-1 Zulte Waregem
Standard Liege have fared well at home of late, while Zulte Waregem have struggled on their travels in recent times, which is why we think the hosts will edge out their opponents to claim a narrow victory on Sunday.
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 Standard Liege win with a probability of 56.73%. A draw had a probability of 21.8% and a win for Zulte Waregem had a probability of 21.47%.
The most likely scoreline for a Standard Liege win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.88%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.98%) and 2-0 (8.79%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.09%), while for a Zulte Waregem win it was 1-2 (5.68%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 5.2% likelihood.
