Groningen and PSV Eindhoven take to the pitch for the first time in 2022 when they face off at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadium on Sunday.
Both teams emerged victorious in their final outings of 2021 and will be looking to continue in the same vein this weekend.
Match preview
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PSV picked up a third league win on the bounce by beating Go Ahead Eagles 2-0 at the Philips Stadion three Thursdays ago.
Philipp Mwene opened the scoring for Roger Schmidt's men in the ninth minute before Cody Gakpo made sure of the result with 12 minutes left on the clock.
The Rood-witten remain top of the pile, ahead of nearest challengers Ajax by one point as they seek to end a four-year wait for domestic supremacy.
Their next task sees them go up against an opposing side on a run of seven straight defeats in this fixture, the most recent of which was a 5-2 thrashing in August's reverse fixture.
No team in the entire division has scored more goals away from home than Sunday's visitors, who hit Waalwijk for four in their last outing on the road.
Groningen suffered a second consecutive league defeat away from home on December 21, when they were beaten 1-0 by AZ Alkmaar.
Jesper Karlsson broke the deadlock midway through the second half to sink Danny Buijs's men at the AFAS Stadion.
The Pride of the North are in 12th place at the moment, six points off the top half and as many points clear of the relegation zone.
Having conceded just six goals on home turf so far - the second fewest in the league - Sunday's hosts will be aiming to keep their visitors at bay this weekend.
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Team News
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Ibrahim Sangare is away with the Ivory Coast national team at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations and will not feature this weekend.
Eran Zahavi and Shurandy Sambo are both nursing knee injuries, while Noni Madueke remains sidelined with a torn muscle.
Cody Gakpo has been in top form since his return from injury, and the 22-year-old is one to keep an eye on.
Radinio Balker is yet to make his first appearance this term due to a knee injury which he picked up prior to his summer move to Groningen.
Mo El Hankouri is in line to miss a fourth game on the spin, as the Dutch forward still battles with a leg injury.
Groningen possible starting lineup:
Leeuwenburgh; Meijer, Van Hintum, Te Wierik, Dammers; Duarte, Suslov, De Leeuw; Van Kaam, Larsen, Abraham
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Drommel; Mwene, Ramalho, Boscagli, Junior; Gutierrez, Gotze, Van Ginkel; Gakpo, Vinicius, Vertessen
We say: Groningen 0-2 PSV Eindhoven
PSV Eindhoven have established a high level of dominance in this fixture and are favourites to come out on top. We fancy them to emerge victorious in relatively comfortable fashion.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
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 PSV Eindhoven win with a probability of 58.98%. A draw had a probability of 23.1% and a win for Groningen had a probability of 17.93%.
The most likely scoreline for a PSV Eindhoven win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (11.27%) and 1-2 (9.72%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.95%), while for a Groningen win it was 1-0 (6.17%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 12.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for PSV Eindhoven in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for PSV Eindhoven.
