Groningen and Heracles go head-to-head at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion on Sunday in matchday 30 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season.
Both teams come into this one looking to get back to winning ways having suffered defeat in their respective last outings.
Match preview
Groningen were beaten 3-1 by Heerenveen when the sides faced off at the Abe Lenstra Stadion two Sundays ago.
Danny Buijs's men went behind to a Sydney van Hooijdonk strike early on but drew level through Neraysho Kasanwirjo just shy of the half-hour mark before second-half goals from the aforementioned Hooijdonk and Sven van Beek decided the contest.
The Pride of the North remain eighth in the league table but now have a six-point deficit to make up in the race for the last Conference League playoff spot.
Lying in store next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have won each of the last three meetings between the teams, including a 4-2 triumph in December's reverse fixture.
Off the back of a 3-1 loss to Ajax in their most recent home match, Sunday's hosts will be keen to come out on top this time around and delight their fans.
Heracles Almelo fell to a comprehensive 4-1 defeat against in-form Feyenoord two Sundays ago at the Erve Asito.
Frank Wormuth's men flew out of the blocks and took an early lead through Sinan Bakis, before goals from Orkun Kokcu, Reiss Nelson, Guus Til and Patrik Walemark turned the game on its head.
The Heraclieden still sit 13th in the Eredivisie table but are now just five points clear of the drop zone with as many games left to play.
Having recently picked up their maiden away victory of the season, Sunday's visitors now go in search of consecutive wins on the road.
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Team News
Heracles' Ismail Azzaoui and Kaj Sierhuis are both down with knee injuries, ruling them out of Sunday's contest.
Janis Blaswich still faces an extended spell on the sidelines despite having missed the last six games through a muscle problem.
Forward Bilal Basacikoglu was excellent in the reverse fixture and will be seeking to come up trumps for his side once more.
Radinio Balker is a guaranteed absentee, as he yet to feature for Groningen this term due to a cruciate ligament injury.
Nineteen-year-old Tomas Suslov remains unavailable owing to a thigh injury, while Jan Hoekstra's season has been brought to a premature end by a shoulder injury.
Groningen possible starting lineup:
Leeuwenburgh; Meijer, Van Hintum, Te Wierik, Dankerlui; Duarte, Kasanwirjo; Abraham, De Leeuw, El Hankouri; Larsen
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Bucker; Fadiga, Sonnenberg, Hoogma, Quagliata; Laursen, Schoofs, De la Torre, Hansson; Ouahim, Bakis
We say: Groningen 1-0 Heracles
Groningen struggle to find the back of the net on home turf, while Heracles have difficulty scoring on the road. We expect a low-scoring affair this weekend and a slender win for the hosts come the sound of the final whistle.
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 Groningen win with a probability of 57.3%. A draw had a probability of 24.1% and a win for Heracles had a probability of 18.63%.
The most likely scoreline for a Groningen win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (11.33%) and 2-1 (9.55%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.34%), while for a Heracles win it was 0-1 (6.74%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 6.7% likelihood.
