AZ Alkmaar host FC Utrecht on Wednesday evening, hoping to extend their unbeaten Eredivisie run to nine matches.
Meanwhile, the visitors have lost just one of their last seven league matches and are looking for their third successive win.
Match preview
© Reuters
AZ Alkmaar secured their 10th league victory of the campaign as they won 3-2 away at Feyenoord last weekend, in what was an entertaining encounter.
Equalisers from Nicolai Jorgensen and Mark Diemers were not enough to claim any points for Feyenoord, who struggled to deal with Alkmaar forward Myron Boadu, whose brace helped snatch a victory from the hosts.
The Cheeseheads have already secured impressive scalps against Vitesse Arnhem and PSV Eindhoven and will be hoping to head into their match with table toppers Ajax on Sunday with another victory against Utrecht under their belts.
AZ have won each of their last three home matches against Utrecht by a 3-0 scoreline, but their last meeting with the Domstedelingen finished as a 2-2 draw in December.
Victory for Pascal Jansen's men would be their sixth triumph at the AFAS Stadium and could move them level on points with PSV if they were to lose away to Emmen.
Utrecht claimed back-to-back league victories for the first time this season after a 2-0 win against Heracles was followed up with a slender 1-0 triumph over Sparta Rotterdam last weekend.
Despite dominating most of the match, the home side left it late as Othman Boussaid's brilliant left-footed strike on the edge of the penalty area in the 88th minute sealed their fifth Eredivisie win of the campaign, moving them up to eighth in the table.
Rene Hake, who was appointed as head coach in November 2020, has seen his side put together a good run of form as the Domstedelingen have lost only one of their last seven top-flight matches.
Utrecht have however won only one of their eight away games in the league this campaign – a 3-2 victory against Emmen before Christmas – and head into Wednesday's match having won only two of their last 14 visits to Alkmaar.
Securing a surprise win in midweek would see the visitors remain in eighth place but could move them within eight points of the Europa League positions.
AZ Alkmaar Eredivisie form: WDDWWW
AZ Alkmaar form (all competitions): DDWWLW
FC Utrecht Eredivisie form: WDDLWW
Team News
© Reuters
AZ Alkmaar right-back Jonas Svensson's continued absence provides another opportunity for Japanese international Yukinari Sugawara to start for the home side.
Dani De Wit (ankle), Ron Vlaar (knock) and Jeremy Helmer (leg) are also unavailable with injuries.
Utrecht will be without forwards Eljero Elia and Moussa Sylla, who are both making steady progress towards returning to action, while Emil Bergstrom is a doubt for the match with a hamstring injury.
Head coach Rene Hake may decide to name the same starting lineup that beat Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday.
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Bizot; Sugawara, Hatzidiakos, Martins Indi, Wijndal; Koopmeiners, Midtsjo, Stengs; Gudmundsson, Boadu, Karlsson
FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
Oelschlagel; Ter Avest, St Jago, Janssen, Warmerdam; Van de Streek, Maher, Van Overeem; Kerk, Dalmau, Ramselaar
We say: AZ Alkmaar 2-1 FC Utrecht
A close encounter is to be expected on Wednesday evening as both sides have impressed in recent weeks. Utrecht have kept clean sheets in their last two matches, but achieving another one against an Alkmaar side, who have scored in all 18 Eredivisie matches this campaign, is unlikely. We expect the home side to claim all three points and close in on the top two.
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 AZ Alkmaar win with a probability of 57.26%. A win for FC Utrecht had a probability of 22.37% and a draw had a probability of 20.4%.
The most likely scoreline for an AZ Alkmaar win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.51%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (7.29%) and 3-1 (6.9%). The likeliest FC Utrecht win was 1-2 (5.7%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (8.74%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 4% likelihood.
