Vitesse and FC Twente draw the curtain on gameweek 22 of the Eredivisie season with their meeting at the GelreDome on Sunday.
Both teams are without a win in their last three league games apiece, and a victory here would be a very welcome one for either side.
Match preview
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Twente were beaten quite comfortably in a 3-0 defeat at the hands of PSV Eindhoven in their last league outing on Saturday.
Since kicking off the year with a 4-1 victory at bottom club Emmen, Ron Jans's men have failed to win any of the following six league games.
In that time, they have managed to pick up only three points from a possible 18 and hence, they have slipped down to seventh in the Eredivisie table.
Worryingly for The Tukkers, they have lost each of their last four away games at Sunday's hosts by an aggregate score of 14 goals to two.
Vitesse saw their title hopes suffer another blow as they were beaten 1-0 by Heerenveen in Saturday's meeting at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
Thomas Letsch's men have fallen further behind the league leaders Ajax, who they now trail by eight points, despite having played an extra game.
The KNVB-Beker seems like their most probable source of silverware this season and Vitas are through to the semi-final after a 1-0 win over Eerste Divisie side SBV Excelsior on Tuesday.
After two disallowed goals in the space of 15 minutes, the tie was headed for extra time, but Lois Openda had other ideas as he struck in the last minute of regulation time to secure his side's progress.
With games against PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar in the coming weeks, the home side are entering into a very definitive phase of the season which could have a large impact overall.
Vitesse Eredivisie form: WWWLDL
Vitesse form (all competitions): WWLDLW
FC Twente Eredivisie form: LDLDDL
Team News
Luka Ilic was sent off in Twente's loss to PSV, so he will miss his side's next three games, beginning with the visit to Vitesse.
Jayden Oosterwolde was forced off at Groningen after pulling his hamstring, and he remains out of action for the next two weeks at least.
Out for the remainder of the season is Twente's Vaclav Cerny, who sustained a knee injury last month against Ajax, where he had to be replaced after eight minutes.
Thomas Bruns was taken off 30 minutes into Vitesse's quarter-final tie, and he may sit the game out in order to avoid aggravating any niggling injury.
As seen in midweek, Daan Huisman would be the obvious replacement for the home side should Bruns fail to recover in time.
Vitesse possible starting lineup:
Pasveer; Wittek, Rasmussen, Bazoer, Doekhi, Dasa; Tannane, Bero, Bruns; Broja, Openda
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Drommel; Dumic, Pierie, Pleguezuelo, Smal; Zerrouki, Roemeratoe, Ilic; Menig, Danilo, Van Leeuwen
We say: Vitesse 2-1 FC Twente
Twente are on a bad run of form at the moment, and we expect their woes to be compounded at Vitesse, who should be able to secure all three points in this one.
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 Vitesse win with a probability of 61.94%. A draw had a probability of 20.7% and a win for FC Twente had a probability of 17.37%.
The most likely scoreline for a Vitesse win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.11%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.95%) and 1-0 (9.88%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.72%), while for a FC Twente win it was 1-2 (4.78%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 2.3% likelihood.
