Two sides with contrasting Eredivisie ambitions will meet this weekend when RKC Waalwijk play host to Feyenoord at Mandemakers Stadion on Saturday evening.
The hosts enter gameweek 15 of the season second-bottom in the league standings with six points, while the visitors are in fourth place with 29 points over the same period.
Match preview
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After spending the entire of last season fighting relegation, RKC Waalwijk are starting to look increasingly likely to struggle to avoid the drop this term, as they are already seven points from safety approaching the halfway point of the campaign.
Last weekend, RKC conceded midway through the first half to Heerenveen but managed to salvage a point from the match, thanks to a stoppage-time penalty from Mohamed Ihattaren which levelled proceedings.
Still, that result marked Henk Fraser's side's third consecutive match without victory, while they have still only won one of their 14 league games to date, which came over basement club Almere City at the start of last month.
At home, RKC have played seven games this season and earned four points during that period (W1 D1 L5), but they conceded two or more goals in all but one of those matches and failed to find the net in three.
Up next for the hosts is an opponent that they lost to home and away last season, and have not got the better of in their last nine league encounters dating back five years to November 2019.
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Meanwhile, Feyenoord also conceded early in their match last weekend against Fortuna Sittard at home and needed a goal from Santiago Gimenez in the final 10 minutes of regulation time to earn a share of the spoils.
The draw against Fortuna followed that dramatic late comeback from three goals down against Manchester City in midweek and extended the Pride of South's unbeaten run across all competitions to four in a row (W2 D2 L0).
In league terms, Brian Priske's side are also unbeaten in their last four matches, including three wins and a draw, while the Danish tactician has still only tasted one defeat in the top flight since taking charge at the start of the season.
Notably, the sole defeat Feyenoord conceded this season was on their home patch, meaning they are still unbeaten on the road after seven away games and are carrying a three-match win streak into this one.
Team News
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Yanick van Osch is expected to remain sidelined with injury until the New Year for RKC Waalwijk, which will see Joey Kesting continue to provide backup for Jeroen Houwen between the sticks.
Faissal Al Mazyani has now missed the last two matches with a knock and he will be joined in a watching brief this weekend by fellow injury absentees Nouri El Harmazi, Daouda Weidmann and Juan Castillo.
For Feyenoord, Quilindschy Hartman, who has now missed almost 300 days due to injury, is closing in on returning to the squad and could feature against Ajax in the team's first match of 2025.
Ayase Ueda has also been ruled out until the New Year with a hip injury, while Hugo Bueno and Ibrahim Osman are sidelined for a few more weeks with knocks, and Julian Carranza is listed as questionable owing to an ankle sprain.
RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Houwen; Van Gelderen, Van Eijma, Van Den Buijs, Wouters; Van der Venne, Roemeratoe, Van de Loo; Margaret, Zawada, Van der Water
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Wellenreuther; Lotomba, Trauner, Hancko, Smal; Hwang, Zerrouki, Timber; Moussa, Redmond, Paixao
We say: RKC Waalwijk 1-2 Feyenoord
The short turnaround time from midweek seemed to affect Feyenoord in last weekend's match when they dropped points at home, but having had a full week to recover for this match, we feel they will be able to return to winning ways.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
