FC Twente play host to Almere City on Wednesday evening with the opportunity to strengthen their hold of third position in the Eredivisie standings.
Meanwhile, Almere head into this contest knowing that achieving maximum points will guarantee their top-flight status for another year.
Match preview
Given the longevity of Twente in the race for the top three this campaign, Joseph Oosting's side deserve very little criticism whatsoever heading into the run-in.
That said, two defeats and dropped points against Heerenveen across the last five fixtures have left Twente with work to do if they wish to secure Europa League football.
When 1-0 ahead of Ajax on away territory last time out, the Tukkers appeared to be on the brink of securing that target, but Ajax turned things around after half time.
Holding a five-point gap over AZ Alkmaar with four matches remaining, Twente could still require another eight points to get over the line, particularly when they visit AZ in their following contest.
Such a scenario increases the stakes ahead of this fixture, although Twente do boast a home record of 12 wins and just two defeats from 15 matches.
Almere City are another of the Eredivisie surprise packages this term, with it expected they would be relegated after only being promoted through the playoffs in 2022-23.
Instead, Alex Pastoor's side sit in 12th place in the standings, a recent run of six successive draws proving beneficial in the long term with the teams below them under-performing.
While that does mean the Black Sheep are without a league win in eight contests, there is minimal negativity at the Yanmar Stadion, even having lost 3-2 to Sparta Rotterdam last time out.
One reason for that is an unbeaten away record that has recently been stretched to five games, with just five defeats being recorded across their 15 games on their travels.
Team News
Having had only a week since their narrow defeat to Ajax, Oosting may be prepared to select a similar side from that contest.
Anass Salah-Eddine, Alfons Sampsted and Max Bruns are alternatives in defence if Oosting wishes to go with a different look to his backline.
With Myron Boadu expected to remain sidelined, Ricky van Wolfswinkel will lead the line.
Rajiv van La Parra could be included in the Almere City attack having been required to replace Adi Nalic before half time against Sparta Rotterdam.
Whether further changes are made are dependent on whether Pastoor sticks with a back five, but the likes of Danny Post, Yann Kitala, Nordin Bakker and Stijn Keller could all miss out through injury.
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Regeer, Hilgers, Propper, Smal; Kjolo, Eiting; Rots, Steijn, Vlap; Van Wolfswinkel
Almere City possible starting lineup:
Sahin-Radlinger; Kamp, Akujobi, Van Bruggen, Floranus, Cathline; Resink, Koopmeiners, Pena; Robinet, Van La Parra
We say: FC Twente 3-1 Almere City
After losing out to Ajax, it remains to be seen how Twente will react as they closer to the finishing line. However, we feel that they should have enough quality at their disposal to secure a potentially-pivotal win.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Darren Plant
