Off the back of a lengthy hiatus, the 2022-23 Eredivisie season resumes with a meeting between FC Twente and Emmen at De Grolsch Veste on Friday evening.
Both teams suffered defeat in their final involvements of 2022, and they will now be looking to raise the curtain on the New Year with all three points here.
Match preview
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Twente wrapped up their preparations for the concluding part of the campaign with a 3-2 defeat against Costa Rican side Alajuelense on December 22.
Goals from Freddy Gondola, Johan Venegas and Alexander Lopez left Ron Jans's men with a mountain to climb before Manfred Ugalde and Sem Steijn got on the scoresheet late on.
The Tukkers have now won just one of their last six games across all competitions ahead of the return of top-flight action, where they sit fifth in the Eredivisie table.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have won just one of the most recent five editions of this fixture dating back to 2019.
Unbeaten in 15 matches in front of their fans leading up to Friday's contest, the hosts now set out to continue an impressive run of results on home turf.
FC Emmen were on the receiving end of a humbling 5-0 defeat against Feyenoord when the teams went head-to-head at De Kuip last Wednesday afternoon.
First-half goals from Patrik Walemark saw Dick Lukkien's men head into the break with too much to do before Oussama Idrissi, Marcus Pedersen and Danilo sealed the deal in the second period.
That was a first defeat in six matches for the Kannibals, who are 16th in the league standings having picked up 11 points from their 14 outings this term.
Currently with the joint-worst attacking record away from home in the division, Friday's visitors will need to get their offence up and running to stand any chance of coming away with a positive result from this one.
Team News
Emmen's Mart Lieder continues his spell on the sidelines with a long-term knee problem, and the 32-year-old will not play any part in Friday's contest.
Jeff Hardeveld and Maikel Kieftenbeld are both not expected to feature again this season as they step up their recovery from ruptured cruciate ligaments.
Midfielder Wout Brama is still unavailable for Twente through an ankle problem, while Greece international Christos Tzolis misses out due to a knee injury.
The home side are also set to be without the services of Dimitrios Limnios and Joshua Brenet, who are nursing ACL and muscle injuries respectively.
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Smal, Propper, Hilgers, Everink; Vlap, Zerrouki; Misidjan, Steijn, Cerny; Van Wolfswinkel
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Burnet, Veldmate, Araujo, Bouchouari; Veendorp, Bernadou; Romeny, Diemers, Mendes; Zivkovic
We say: FC Twente 2-0 Emmen
Emmen have struggled to find the back of the net on a consistent basis, and we expect that to continue against the team with the best defensive record in the Eredivisie so far. We also fancy Twente to cruise to a relatively comfortable victory at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
