AZ Alkmaar travel to the Mandemakers Stadion to face RKC Waalwijk on Saturday, seeking to bounce back from a defeat last time out which ended their four-game winning streak.
The hosts have lost each of their last three matches, and they face an uphill task of avoiding defeat against a side who they last beat in 2013.
Match preview
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AZ Alkmaar became the latest team to be defeated by Ajax following a 2-0 loss when the sides met at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on Sunday.
An even first half ended all square and deservedly so, but the league leaders upped the ante after the interval and claimed all three points courtesy of a brace from Davy Klaassen.
Pascal Jansen's men have now fallen three points behind PSV Eindhoven in the race for second place with only four games left.
The Cheeseheads have a near-perfect record against Saturday's opponents having won nine and drawn one of the last 11 meetings between the teams dating back to 2009.
AZ's away record is also second to only Ajax's in the entire division, and they will be optimistic of another fruitful assignment on the road.
Waalwijk endured another frustrating outing as they were beaten for the third game on the bounce by Willem II, who claimed a 1-0 win on Friday.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored the decisive goal 10 minutes into the second half to settle what was a tightly contested affair.
Fred Grim's men remain in 14th place, but they are now only two points above the drop zone having picked up just four of the last 21 points available.
RKC have conceded the fewest number of goals in the bottom eight, so it is obvious that their attack has been the cause of the majority of their problems.
Finn Stokkers leads the way with five goals in 26 games which is simply not good enough for a team that aspires to remain in the Eredivisie.
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Team News
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Pantelis Chatzidiakos is ruled out for the clash as the Greek defender is yet to feature since suffering a knee injury against Vitesse.
Rens van der Wacht's still awaits his first outing of the season, and the 21-year-old is still a considerable way off making his return to action.
The duo of Jordy Clasie and Richard Sedlacek are expected to miss the match with ankle and knee injuries respectively.
Waalwijk's Morad El Haddouti is unfit to play due to an ankle injury which he picked up back in November when he came on as a second-half substitute.
Luuk Wouters is a doubt for the game having made only two appearances since the turn of the year because of a muscle problem.
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Lamprou; Quasten, Touba, Meulensteen, Bakari; Anita, Van der Venne, Tahiri; Oosting, John, Daneels
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Bizot; Wijndal, Martins Indi, Letschert, Svensson; Stengs, Reijnders, Midtsjo; Karlsson, Boadu, Gudmundsson
We say: RKC Waalwijk 1-3 AZ Alkmaar
Prior to their defeat against the league leaders, AZ were firing on all cylinders both home and away. We expect Saturday's visitors to put that loss behind them and bounce back with a convincing victory at full time.
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 AZ Alkmaar win with a probability of 62.69%. A win for RKC Waalwijk had a probability of 18.79% and a draw had a probability of 18.5%.
The most likely scoreline for an AZ Alkmaar win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.27%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-3 (7.49%) and 0-2 (7.27%). The likeliest RKC Waalwijk win was 2-1 (4.88%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (7.65%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 7.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that AZ Alkmaar would win this match.
