Feyenoord and Heerenveen will both be looking to pick up where they left off right before the international break in Saturday's meeting at De Kuip in matchday 13 of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season.
The hosts ran out emphatic 4-1 winners over Almere City in their most recent outing, while the away side battled hard to claim a narrow 1-0 triumph over Go Ahead Eagles.
Match preview
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Having already fallen off the pace in the race for the title, Feyenoord made the trip to the Yanmar Stadium on October 10 to lock horns with Almere knowing that anything but a win would see them trail defending champions and current leaders PSV Eindhoven by a double-digit margin.
Brian Priske's men made a bright start to the contest and deservedly took the lead through Hwang In-beom, although they were soon pegged back by Kornelius Hansen, after which Ramiz Zerrouki, Thomas Beelen and Anis Hadj Moussa netted to hand their team all three points.
That was a perfect response to De Stadionclub's comprehensive 3-1 defeat to Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League four days earlier, which denied them the opportunity to move into the automatic knockout places.
While Feyenoord will have the opportunity to get their European adventure back on track against Manchester City on Tuesday, the Rotterdam-based outfit will first look to continue their recent domestic resurgence with five wins picked up from the last six league matches.
Saturday's hosts are eight points from top spot in the Eredivisie table at the moment and will be keen to remain within touching distance of PSV before the sides go head-to-head in their final outing of the year just over a month from now.
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Aiming to avoid suffering consecutive defeats for the second time this season, Heerenveen continued their near-perfect record on home turf thanks to a 1-0 victory at the expense of Go Ahead Eagles two Sundays ago.
In-form forward Jacob Trenskow was the point of difference for Robin van Persie's men once again as his opening strike nine minutes from half time proved to be the decisive moment in a tight affair at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
Trenskow has now been directly involved in six goals—four goals and two assists—for his new employers; just under half of De Superfriezen's 13 goals scored across their opening 12 matches of the season.
While only the current top three of PSV, Ajax and FC Utrecht have picked up more home points than Heerenveen, their record on the road has been nothing to write home about off the back of six straight defeats.
Currently with the most goals conceded away from home (20), Saturday's visitors will head to Rotterdam wary of being on the receiving end of another thrashing following a 6-1 rout in last season's trip to De Kuip.
Team News
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Dutch duo Calvin Stengs and Quilindschy Hartman are both unavailable for selection with knee injuries, while Ayase Ueda is currently battling with a muscle problem.
Ibrahim Osman had to pull out from international duty with Ghana during the break, and it remains to be seen if the winger will be fit enough to play any part this weekend.
Last season's leading goalscorer, Santiago Gimenez, is a guaranteed absentee for the home side having not made an appearance since September due to a hip injury.
Mickey van der Hart was fit enough to be named among the Heerenveen substitutes last time out and could be set for a return to action after a brief spell on the sidelines.
This would see 30-year-old Andries Noppert drop to the bench after featuring in goal for each of the visitors' last four league matches and five across all competitions.
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Wellenreuther; Smal, Hancko, Trauner, Read; Zerrouki, Hwang; Paixao, Timber, Hadj Moussa; Redmond
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Braude, Hopland, Bochniewicz, Kohlert; Van Ee, Conde; Trenskow, Brouwers, Smans; Nicolaescu
We say: Feyenoord 3-1 Heerenveen
Heerenveen's abysmal away record this term makes it hard to envisage any other outcome this weekend than a home win.
We can see Feyenoord cruising to a routine victory in what should be a largely one-sided affair in Rotterdam.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
