The 2021-22 Eredivisie campaign kicks off on Friday when newly-promoted Go Ahead Eagles square off against Heerenveen at De Adelaarshorst.
The hosts are back in the top flight after finishing as runners-up in last season's Eerste Divisie, while their visitors have been an ever-present at this level for the past 28 years.
Match preview
Fresh off the back of their worst league finish in half a decade, Heerenveen rounded up their preparations for the new term with a 1-1 stalemate versus Italian outfit Leece on Saturday.
Joey Veerman's 26th-minute strike cancelled out Massimo Coda's opener 11 minutes earlier to ensure a share of the spoils at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
Johnny Jansen's men had a mixed pre-season, recording wins over Jong Utrecht, TOP Oss and PEC Zwolle with losses to Maccabi Tel Aviv and Groningen sandwiched in between those victories.
Friday's game in Deventer sees De Superfriezen go up against an opposing side who they are yet to lose to in any of the seven previous meetings between the teams in all competitions.
The visitors also came out on top on their last trip to the hosts back in 2016 when they rallied from a goal down to claim a 3-1 triumph.
Following a five-game winning run to clinch second place behind Cambuur, Go Ahead Eagles have failed to win any of their four pre-season outings.
The pride of the IJssel Kowet suffered a 2-0 defeat in their most recent involvement, which was against Deinze on Saturday.
Kees Van Wonderen's men must now get their act together as they prepare to feature at the highest level of Dutch football for the first time in five years.
Friday's hosts finished rock bottom in their last appearance at this level back in the 2016-17 campaign, and a good start would be a springboard for faring better this time around.
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Team News
Sam Crowther has been sidelined since last December, and the 21-year-old is not expected to play any part for the hosts in this one.
Frank Ross has also been out of action for the past seven months due to a muscle injury which is set to keep him out of Friday's game.
Luuk Brouwers is a doubt for the contest after he picked up a chest injury in his side's penultimate league match last term and has not featured since.
Joey Veerman will be raring to go once again having found the back of the net in each of his last two matches for Heerenveen.
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Noppert; Bakker, Berden, Deijl, Dimitrijevic; Dos Santos, Kuipers, Lucassen; Mulenga, Nauber; Rommens
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mulder; Dresevic, Halilovic, Kaib, Kongolo; Stevanovic, Van Beek, Van Bergen, Van Ewijk; H.Veerman, J.Veerman
We say: Go Ahead Eagles 1-2 Heerenveen
Heerenveen will fancy their chances of claiming all three points against a relatively inexperienced side, while the hosts will relish playing in front of their fans at this level for the first time in a long while. We anticipate a keenly-contested affair and a narrow win for the visiting side.
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 Heerenveen win with a probability of 43.75%. A win for Go Ahead Eagles had a probability of 30.43% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heerenveen win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.42%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9%) and 0-2 (7.64%). The likeliest Go Ahead Eagles win was 1-0 (8.38%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.27%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 10.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Heerenveen in this match.
