Groningen and FC Twente kick off round eight of the eight of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season with their meeting at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadium on Friday.
The teams head into the game in contrasting forms as the home side go in search of a fifth consecutive victory, while the visitors are looking to avoid a fourth straight defeat.
Match preview
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Twente made it four wins on the spin on Sunday when they saw off the challenge of Heerenveen in a 3-2 triumph at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Daan Rots handed Ron Jans's men a two-goal lead at half time, before Sven van Beek put the ball past his own goalkeeper midway through the second half after which De Superfriezen hit back through Henk Veerman and a Robin Propper own goal.
The Tukkers have now risen to sixth place in the Eredivisie table having picked up more points than every other team with the exception of Ajax over the last four gameweeks.
Their next task comes against an opposing side who are without a win in the last six meetings between the teams and have come out on top in just four of the last 20 encounters overall.
With a clash against high-flying Willem II to follow, Friday's hosts will want to keep the juggernaut rolling in a bid to continue their surge up the standings.
Groningen were left empty-handed yet again following a 3-0 defeat when they faced off against defending champions Ajax at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on Saturday.
Edson Alvarez, Noussair Mazraoui and Brazilian starlet Antony all got on the scoresheet in Amsterdam to heap more misery on Danny Buijs's men.
Heading into this weekend's match, the Pride of the North are winless in six outings since an opening-day 2-1 victory versus newly-promoted Cambuur.
Having failed to find the back of the net of four of the aforementioned six matches, Friday's hosts will need to get going in attack in order to stand a chance of emerging victorious.
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Team News
Mike te Wierik and Daniel Van Kaam were suspended for the hosts' defeat to Ajax last time out and will both miss Friday's game as they serve the second of a three-game ban.
This should see Yahya Kalley and Marin Sverko retain their place in the starting lineup after both featuring in the aforementioned game.
Twenty-four-year-old midfielder Laros Duarte has missed his side's last two fixtures and is not expected to play any part in this one either.
Twente's duo of Vaclav Cerny and Jody Lukoki are ruled out with knee injuries and will both miss their side's journey to Groningen this weekend.
The visitors will also have to make do with the absence of Kik Pierie who remains without an appearance so far as he is currently nursing a back problem.
Groningen possible starting lineup:
Leeuwenburgh; Dammers, Kasanwirjo, Sverko; El Hankouri, Dankerlui, Suslov, Kalley; Ngonge, Strand Larsen, De Leeuw
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Sadilek, Hilgers, Propper, Troupee; Brama, Zerrouki, Vlap; Rots, Van Wolfswinkel, Limnios
We say: Groningen 1-2 FC Twente
Twente have recovered from an early-season slump and are now playing at a level we have come to expect, while Groningen are still finding their feet seven games into the new campaign. We are tipping the away side to continue their fine run of form by claiming all three points in this one.
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 Groningen win with a probability of 36.36%. A win for FC Twente had a probability of 35.39% and a draw had a probability of 28.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Groningen win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.52%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.73%) and 2-0 (6.73%). The likeliest FC Twente win was 0-1 (11.32%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.23%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 13.2% likelihood.
