With both teams struggling for wins of late, Sparta Rotterdam and Go Ahead Eagles face off at the Het Kasteel on Saturday in round 26 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season.
For the visitors, this weekend's clash also represents an opportunity to complete a first league double of the season following a 2-0 victory in August's reverse fixture.
Match preview
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Sparta were involved in a frenetic contest versus Vitesse which had to be abandoned due to crowd unrest in the closing stages on Friday at the GelreDome.
Henk Fraser's men led thanks in no small part to Maduka Okoye's heroics after Adrian Dalmau had opened the scoring five minutes in before the game was abandoned.
Having come within minutes of what would have been only a second league win in 12 outings, De Kasteelheren must now dig in once again as they seek to move off the bottom of the league standings.
Going up against an opposing side who have lost on each of their last five visits, Saturday's hosts will be confident of coming away with all three points this weekend.
However, they have only scored 11 goals in 13 home matches so far, which is an area that needs significant improvement as the season enters its final quarter.
Go Ahead Eagles played out a 1-1 draw versus FC Utrecht at De Adelaarshorst on Saturday to extend their unbeaten run in the Eredivisie to three games.
Kees Van Wonderen's men possessed a slender advantage at half time courtesy of Luuk Brouwers's opener before Moussa Sylla resorted parity with a tidy finish half an hour into the second period.
Consequently, The Pride of the IJsel Kowet have moved up to 11th place in the league standings, closing the gap on the top half to four points.
Saturday's visitors follow up this weekend's game with a clash against fellow newcomers Cambuur while the home side make the journey to take on NEC.
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Team News
Joris Kramer has served his one-game ban for his red card against PSV Eindhoven earlier in the month and is now eligible to participate once again.
Sam Crowther is drawing increasingly close to a return to action, but this weekend's game is expected to be too soon for the 21-year-old.
Giannis-Fivos Botos was on target in the reverse fixture and will be looking to come up trumps once again despite having failed to score in his last four outings.
Defender Arno Verschueren is suspended for Sparta Rotterdam after receiving his marching orders in a 2-1 defeat to PSV a fortnight ago.
Lennart Thy is set to return to the starting lineup for this one, which could see Mario Engels drop to the bench in favour of the German.
Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:
Okoye; Durmisi, Auassar, Beugelsdijk, Abels; Van Crooy, De Kamps, Mijnans, Van Mullem; Dalmau, Thy
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Noppert; Martina, Nauber, Kramer, Idzes; Rommens, Brouwers, Oratmangoen, Deijl; Lidberg, Cordoba
We say: Sparta Rotterdam 1-0 Go Ahead Eagles
Sparta are now entering the last chance saloon to preserve their top-flight status, and anything short of a victory this weekend would be a huge setback. We fancy them to narrowly edge out their visitors and come away with all three points at the end of the 90 minutes.
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 Sparta Rotterdam win with a probability of 37.59%. A win for Go Ahead Eagles had a probability of 35.44% and a draw had a probability of 27%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sparta Rotterdam win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.42%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.16%) and 2-0 (6.64%). The likeliest Go Ahead Eagles win was 0-1 (10.05%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.81%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 10.4% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Sparta Rotterdam in this match.
