It is seventh versus eighth in round 23 of the 2023-24 Eredivisie as NEC welcome Sparta Rotterdam to Stadion de Goffert on Saturday night.
The hosts head into this one off the back of a share of the spoils last time out, while their visitors ended a four-game winless run in style.
Match preview
NEC battled hard to come away with a share of the spoils in a 2-2 stalemate against Ajax in Sunday's meeting at the Johan Cruyff ArenA.
Rogier Meijer's men trailed to Brian Brobbey's early opener but managed to level matters through a Jorrel Hato own goal, after which they fell behind again to Carlos Forbs's strike which was cancelled out in second-half stoppage time by Rober Gonzalez.
As a result, the Eniesee remain seventh in the Eredivisie table, just one point clear of the chasing pack in the race for the final European place.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who are unbeaten in the last 10 editions of this fixture across all competitions dating back to 2016.
Having won six straight matches on home turf leading up to this weekend's contest, Saturday's hosts will back themselves to get the job done in front of their fans once again.
Sparta Rotterdam ran out 4-2 winners against SBV Excelsior when the teams locked horns at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel on Saturday evening.
After conceding a quickfire double to Kik Pierie and Lance Duijvestijn, Jeroen Rijsdijk's men hit back through Arno Verschueren and Tobias Lauritsen before goals from Lauritsen and Charles-Andreas Brym completed the turnaround.
With 29 points picked up from 22 matches so far, De Kasteelheren sit eighth in the standings, one point and one place behind their next opponents.
Currently on a run of one win from their last five matches on the road, Saturday's visitors will need to get going on the road in their battle for continental qualification.
Team News
NEC Nijmegen's Bas Dost remains unavailable for selection due to a heart problem, which has seen him fail to feature since early December.
Dutch duo Nils Rossen and Kas de Wit also miss out this weekend, but the former is closing in on a return to the hosts' first-team picture.
Sparta's Jonathan de Guzman received his fifth yellow card of the season last time out and will serve a one-game suspension this weekend.
Twenty-six-year-old Tobias Lauritsen has been directly involved in 13 goals for the away side this term, making him one to keep an eye on here.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; Baas, Verdonk, Sandler, Van Rooy; Proper, Hoedemakers; Hansen, Chery, Sano; Ogawa
Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:
Olij; Warmerdam, Eerdhuijzen, Meissen, Bakari; Kitolano, Clement; Saito, Verschueren, Brym; Lauritsen
We say: NEC 1-0 Sparta Rotterdam
NEC's impeccable home record of late makes them huge favourites to come out on top here. We are backing the hosts to secure all three points, albeit by only a narrow margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
