AZ Alkmaar play host to bottom club PEC Zwolle at the AFAS Stadion on Saturday in gameweek 11 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie campaign.
The visitors head into the game aiming to make it back to back wins for the first time this term, while the hosts seek to deliver an immediate response to a defeat last time out.
Match preview
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AZ Alkmaar's five-game winning run across all competitions has been brought to an end following a 2-0 defeat versus Groningen on Sunday.
Goals in either half from Cyril Ngonge and Michael de Leeuw condemned Pascal Jansen's to defeat at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion.
As a result, the Cheeseheads have dropped down to 11th place on the log but remain just three points away from the last European place.
Their next task sees them go up against an opposing side who have not won any of the last 13 competitive meetings between the teams since 2016.
With one eye on next Thursday's Conference League fixture versus Cluj, Saturday's hosts will be looking to put on a show ahead of their continental commitment.
PEC Zwolle got their season up and running at the 10th time of asking with a narrow 1-0 triumph over Heracles at the MAC³PARK Stadion.
The match was decided in the 92nd minute when Bram van Polen kept his cool from 12 yards to hand Art Langeler's men all three points.
De Blauwvingers remain rooted to the bottom of the Eredivisie table at the moment but have now moved within six points of safety.
Saturday's visitors also claimed an emphatic 4-1 win over De Graafschap in the KNVB-Beker on Wednesday and are on a high going into this weekend's contest.
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Team News
Zwolle's Pelle Clement is currently sidelined through an ankle problem and will play no part in this weekend's contest.
Sai Van Wermeskerken has not featured since picking up a knee injury in February, and the Japanese is also unavailable for the visitors.
Fredrik Midtsjo was on target for AZ in the last edition of this weekend's fixture and the 28-year-old will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Forward Albert Gudmundsson is one to keep an eye on in this one having found the back of the net in each of his last two home appearances.
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Vindahl; Wijndal, Martins Indi, Chatzidiakos, Sugawara; Midtsjo, Clasie, De Wit; Karlsson, Pavlidis, Gudmundsson
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Lamprou; Pabai, Van Polen, Kersten, Nakayama; Saymak, Strieder, Huiberts; Kastaneer, Tedic, Redan
We say: AZ Alkmaar 3-1 PEC Zwolle
Buoyed by last week's victory, Zwolle will be optimistic of picking up another positive result, but they are faced with the challenge of a very capable AZ side. We are backing the home team to cruise a relative comfortable win at the end of the 90 minutes.
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 AZ Alkmaar win with a probability of 75.54%. A draw had a probability of 15.7% and a win for PEC Zwolle had a probability of 8.78%.
The most likely scoreline for an AZ Alkmaar win was 2-0 with a probability of 12.95%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (10.68%) and 3-0 (10.46%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.45%), while for a PEC Zwolle win it was 0-1 (3.08%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 2.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that AZ Alkmaar would win this match.
