Fortuna Sittard play host to FC Utrecht on Saturday looking to make it two league wins on the spin, and move into the top half of the Eredivisie table, for the time being at least.
Meanwhile, the visitors are aiming to return to winning ways after their hopes of a European finish were dealt a blow last time out.
Match preview
Fortuna Sittard bounced back from consecutive defeats to Groningen and PSV Eindhoven with a 3-1 win against VVV-Venlo on Sunday.
Lisandro Semedo and Mats Seuntjens were on target either side of a Giorgos Giakoumakis equaliser before Zian Flemming made sure of the win 25 minutes from time.
Sjors Ultee's men moved up into 10th place as a result of that win, and they are just three points away from the top seven.
A win for Saturday's hosts would take them level on points with their visitors, although Utrecht still have a game in hand.
However, their recent record in this fixture does not make for good reading as the Fortunezen are yet to win any of the last four meetings between the teams.
Utrecht suffered their second loss in the last three games following a 3-1 defeat to Vitesse at the Stadion Galgenwaard on Sunday.
Rene Hake's men took the lead just before the break through Gyrano Kerk, but the game was turned on its head by Oussama Darfalou's brace after which Maximilian Wittek put the final nail in the coffin.
The Domstedelingen remain in seventh place, but four of the teams nearby are beginning to bear down on them, including Saturday's opponents.
With matches against three of those sides to come in the next six gameweeks, they are faced with what is probably the most important period of their season.
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Team News
Piet Velthuizen is Fortuna's only absentee for the game as he continues to battle with a muscle injury through which he has missed his side's last two outings.
Zian Flemming continues to enjoy an excellent campaign up front as he netted his 11th goal in all competitions last time out.
Remco Balk has been sidelined for the past month with a calf problem, and he is not expected to play any part in Saturday's game.
Christopher Mamengi is ruled out until April at the earliest due to an ankle injury that he picked up while on duty with the reserve team.
A knee injury has limited Simon Gustafson to just two appearances since the turn of the year, but he is not far off a return to action.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Van Osch; Cox, Tirpan, Angha, Rota; Hansson, Rienstra, Tekie, Semedo; Seuntjens, Flemming
FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
Oelschlagel; Warmerdam, Janssen, St Jago, Ter Avest; Maher, Boussaid, Van Overeem; Ramselaar, Van De Streek, Kerk
We say: Fortuna Sittard 1-2 FC Utrecht
Neither side has been involved in a draw of late, so we expect a winner in this one. The visitors are the favourites due to their superiority in squad quality, and we are backing them to emerge victorious.
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 FC Utrecht win with a probability of 54.59%. A win for Fortuna Sittard had a probability of 23.05% and a draw had a probability of 22.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a FC Utrecht win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.82%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.95%) and 0-2 (8.49%). The likeliest Fortuna Sittard win was 2-1 (6%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.36%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that FC Utrecht would win this match.
