Aiming to avoid a third consecutive Eredivisie defeat on home territory, Feyenoord play host to city rivals Sparta Rotterdam at De Kuip on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the away side head into the clash on a nine-game winless streak across all competitions and will be keen to arrest this slump in form.
Match preview
© Reuters
Feyenoord exhibited great powers of recovery to claim a comprehensive 4-1 victory over NEC Nijmegen at the Goffertstadion on January 23.
Arne Slot's found themselves behind early on thanks to Lasse Schone's opener, but a brace from Orkun Kokcu either side of half time turned the game on its head before second-half strikes from Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Guus Till sealed the deal.
De Stadionclub remain third in the Eredivisie table, four points adrift of PSV Eindhoven in second and a further two points shy of current leaders Ajax.
Up next is a local derby versus an opposing side yet to win any of the last eight meetings between the teams and even suffered a 1-0 defeat in October's reverse fixture.
Only the aforementioned top two have scored more home goals than Sunday's hosts who hit Fortuna Sittard for five in their league victory on home turf.
© Reuters
Sparta Rotterdam continue to struggle as they were beaten 3-0 by FC Utrecht when the teams faced off at the Het Kasteel fortnight ago.
Goals from Anastasios Douvikas, Mimoun Mahi and Sander van de Streek put Henk Fraser and his largely underwhelming troops to the sword.
Having managed to pick up just four of the last 24 points available, De Kasteelheren are 16th in the league standings, albeit only four points adrift of safety.
This weekend's visitors have the joint second-worst attacking record away from home in the entire division which is an area that needs significant improvement going forward.
- W
- D
- L
- W
- L
- W
- D
- L
- L
- W
- L
- W
- L
- D
- D
- D
- D
- L
- D
- L
- D
- D
- D
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Cyriel Dessers grabbed a stoppage-time winner in the reverse fixture, and the Nigerian will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Twenty-two-year-old Luis Sinisterra made his return to action last time out after missing the previous two games with a minor muscle injury.
New signing Philippe Sandler is yet to feature since September due to a thigh problem which he picked up while in action for Lyon.
Benjamin van Leer has missed each of Sparta's last six games through a shoulder injury, and the goalkeeper is a huge doubt for this weekend's game.
Maduka Okoye could return between the sticks for the first time since crashing out of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Bijlow; Pedersen, Trauner, Geertruida, Malacia; Aursnes, Kokcu, Til; Linssen, Jahanbakhsh, Nelson
Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:
Okoye; Vriends, Abels, Beugelsdijk; Van Crooy, Namli, De Kamps, Mijnans, Meijers; Thy, Dalmau
We say: Feyenoord 3-1 Sparta Rotterdam
Sparta have been really abysmal of late, and it is hard to see them coming away from this one with anything. We are tipping Feyenoord to come out on top in relatively comfortable fashion.
Top 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 Feyenoord win with a probability of 73.67%. A draw had a probability of 16.2% and a win for Sparta Rotterdam had a probability of 10.15%.
The most likely scoreline for a Feyenoord win was 2-0 with a probability of 11.8%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.69%) and 3-0 (9.58%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.64%), while for a Sparta Rotterdam win it was 0-1 (3.14%). The actual scoreline of 4-0 was predicted with a 5.8% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Feyenoord would win this match.
