Still in search of their first win of the new campaign after seven rounds of matches, PEC Zwolle welcome Heerenveen to the Mac3Park Stadion on Saturday.

On the other hand, the visitors come into the contest off the back of consecutive defeats and will be looking to arrest this slump in form.

Match preview

PEC Zwolle suffered a fourth straight defeat on the road following a comprehensive 5-1 win for Utrecht when the teams faced off on Saturday.

Anastasios Douvikas, Moussa Sylla, Bart Ramselaar, Mimoun Mahi and Willem Janssen were all on target at the Stadion Galgenwaard to heap more misery on Art Langeler's men.

The Blauwvingers remain rooted to the bottom of the Eredivisie table, four points adrift of safety with the season still in its opening quarter.

They will hope to turn things around against an opposing side who they beat in both of last season's league meetings by a combined score of 6-1.

However, Saturday's hosts did fall to a 2-0 defeat in the most recent encounter involving the outfits, which was a pre-season friendly back in July.

In search of a second home win on the trot, Heerenveen were defeated 3-2 by Twente in a frenetic affair at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Sunday.

Goals from Ricky Van Wolfswinkel and Daan Rots saw Johnny Jansen's men trail by two at half time, before a Sven Van Beek own goal looked to have been the final nail in the coffin, but Heerenveen nearly forced a draw courtesy of a Henk Veerman strike and a Robin Propper own goal.

With 10 points from seven outings so far, De Superfriezen are eighth in the Eredivisie as things stand, 10 places and nine points better off than their next opponents.

Saturday's visitors follow up this weekend's contest with games against two of the current top five and will be keen to secure a confidence-boosting victory ahead of those matches.

PEC Zwolle Eredivisie form:

Heerenveen Eredivisie form:

Team News

Rami Kaib made his return to action with a second-half cameo versus Twente last time out, but he could be given the nod right from the off this time around.

Twenty-three-year-old Rodney Kongolo misses out through illness, while Pawel Bochniewicz is ruled out of Saturday's contest with a knee injury.

Sai Van Wermeskerken remains out of action for Zwolle since picking up a knee injury in February, and the Japanese defender continues his spell on the sidelines.

The home side will also be without the services of Mees de Wit and Pelle Clement who are currently down with hand and ankle injuries respectively.

PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Lamprou; Pabai, Van Polen, Kersten, Nakayama; Reijnders, Strieder, Van den Belt; Paal, Tedic, Redan

Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mulder; Dresevic, Woudenberg, Van Beek, Van Ewijk; J.Veerman, Halilovic, Madsen; De Jong, H.Veerman, Musaba

SM words green background

We say: PEC Zwolle 1-2 Heerenveen

Zwolle have found it hard to get going at both ends of the pitch, and it is hard to see things changing this weekend. We predict that the visiting team will come away with all three points.

Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

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 PEC Zwolle win with a probability of 39.89%. A win for Heerenveen had a probability of 32.62% and a draw had a probability of 27.5%.

The most likely scoreline for a PEC Zwolle win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.48%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.32%) and 2-0 (7.36%). The likeliest Heerenveen win was 0-1 (10.13%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.98%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 10.1% likelihood.