Aiming to end an eight-game league winless streak, Emmen welcome Groningen to De Oude Meerdijk on Sunday in round 12 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season.
The visitors, on the other hand, go in search of back to back league wins for the first time this term having picked up a first victory in five matches last time out.
Match preview
Groningen put on arguably their most impressive performance of the season so far on Sunday afternoon in a 4-2 triumph over PSV Eindhoven at the Euroborg.
Frank Wormuth's men raced to a commanding lead thanks to strikes from Ricardo Pepi, Radinio Balker and Cyril Ngonge before Ibrahim Sangare and Guus Til netted to set up a thrilling finale in which Joey Pelupessy put the game to bed.
Consequently, Trots van het Noorden have now moved up into 14th place in the Eredivisie standings, three points clear of relegation danger.
Awaiting them next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with just one win in the most recent eight editions of the fixture dating back to July 2019.
However, Sunday's visitors head into this weekend's clash having scored the joint-fewest number of goals on enemy territory, and they will need to get going at the attacking end of the pitch to stand any chance of coming out on top.
Emmen were beaten away from home for the sixth time in seven outings across all competitions following a 2-1 defeat to Vitesse at GelreDome on Saturday.
Dick Lukkien's men found themselves with a mountain to climb after conceding first-half strikes to Gabriel Vidovic and Maximilian Wittek before Mark Diemers halved the deficit midway through the second period.
Off the back of a poor start to the current campaign which has seen them pick up just six points in 11 matches, the Kannibals are currently 17th in the league table, four points adrift of safety.
Unbeaten in all but two of their 16 home outings since the turn of the year, Sunday's hosts will be confident of coming away with a positive result.
Team News
Maikel Kieftenbeld suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament after Emmen's season-opener against PSV, and the midfielder is ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
Jeff Hardeveld is also out with a long-term injury, although the 27-year-old could make his return to action in the final knockings of the season.
Mart Lieder is unavailable for the home side due to a knee injury, while Metehan Guclu and Lucas Bernadou also miss out due to hamstring problems.
Since returning from a shoulder injury, Jan Hoekstra has had to make do with a place on the bench in three straight matches and will be pushing for a start here.
Peter Leeuwenburgh came off at half time in Groningen's 3-0 KNVB-Beker triumph over Dordrecht last Wednesday, making him a major doubt for this one.
Ricardo Pepi will be looking to deliver the goods for the visitors once again as he heads into Sunday's clash on a run of six goals in his last six appearances.
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Dirksen, Veldmate, Araujo, Bouchouari; Veendorp, Vlak; Diemers, Mendes, El Messaoudi; Romeny
Groningen possible starting lineup:
De Boer; Kasanwirjo, Te Wierik, Balker, Dybvik; Valente, Duarte; Ngonge, Kruger, Abraham; Pepi
We say: Emmen 1-0 Groningen
Despite their poor start to the season, Emmen have remained a tough nut to crack on their own patch and we expect that trend to continue here. We are backing the hosts to emerge victorious from what should be a hard-fought contest.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
