Groningen will host Heracles on Wednesday as they hope to continue their impressive run in the league, with the hosts currently on a four-match winning streak.
Heracles, meanwhile, will also be in high spirits following their 2-1 victory over Heerenveen at the weekend, picking up their third win of the season.
Match preview
Groningen continued their excellent form on Saturday, claiming a 3-2 win against Sparta Rotterdam, putting them up to fifth place in the table.
During the match, Wessel Dammers got on the scoresheet within the early stages of the game, before Jorgen Strand Larsen netted a brace in the second half.
It is also worth noting that Groningen have picked up four wins across their previous six home fixtures, including an impressive 1-0 triumph against Ajax back in October.
Danny Buijs's men will be keen to maintain their home record this Wednesday, and a win against Heracles could see them climb to fourth spot.
The visitors, on the other hand, have endured a pretty poor start to the 2020-21 season, suffering seven defeats in their opening 13 games.
However, they were able to end a five-match winless streak with a win over Heerenveen on Sunday, featuring goals from Delano Burgzorg and Mats Knoester.
That being said, they did manage to pick up a crucial point against Feyenoord just two weeks ago, after they registered a 0-0 draw against their opponents, despite Sinan Bakis being sent off in the 66th minute.
Heracles currently sit in 12th place in the table, just one point behind both FC Utrecht and PEC Zwolle.
The last time these two teams met in the Eredivisie was back in August last year, when Heracles managed a narrow 2-1 win over Groningen.
Groningen Eredivisie form: WWWWDL
Groningen form (all competitions): WLWWWD
Heracles Eredivisie form: WLDLLL
Team News
Groningen have a few injury concerns for this game as Arjen Robben remains on the sidelines for his boyhood club.
Both Azor Matusiwa and Patrick Joosten are also out, with the two players expected to make their return next month.
Meanwhile, Heracles have just one player set to miss the upcoming match, with Navajo Bakboord currently out with a knee injury.
Coach Frank Wormuth is likely to opt for a similar side that managed a 2-1 win against Heerenveen last time round, perhaps bringing in Luca de la Torre for Burgzorg.
Groningen possible starting lineup:
Padt; Dammers, Itakura, Van Hintum; Dankerlui, Lundqvist, El Messaoudi, Van Kaam, Gudmundsson; Larsen, El Hankouri
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Blaswich; Breukers, Rente, Knoester, Quagliata; Schoofs, Vloet, Kiomourtzoglou; Van der Water, Bakis, De la Torre
We say: Groningen 2-1 Heracles
Groningen could extend their unbeaten run on Wednesday, with the hosts expected to claim a victory against Heracles. Buijs's men will be eager to continue their climb up the table, while the visitors are struggling in the bottom half.
Top betting 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 51.91%. A draw had a probability of 26.5% and a win for Heracles had a probability of 21.62%.
The most likely scoreline for a Groningen win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.65%) and 2-1 (9.04%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.25%), while for a Heracles win it was 0-1 (8.32%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.3% likelihood.
