Two teams in dire need of a victory, albeit for very different reasons, face off in round 30 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season as Heerenveen and Emmen go head-to-head.
The hosts are firmly in the hunt to secure European football, while their visitors make the trip to Abe Lenstra Stadion aiming to pull clear of relegation danger.
Match preview
Heerenveen were beaten away from home for the first time in over two months with a 4-0 thrashing against Sparta Rotterdam at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel on Saturday.
Kees van Wonderen's men fell behind to Michael Pinto's opener five minutes shy of the half time before second-half goals from Younes Namli, Shurandy Sambo and Vito van Crooy sealed the deal.
Consequently, De Superfriezen remain ninth in the Eredivisie table, behind RKC Waalwijk only on goal difference in the race for the final Conference League playoff place.
Awaiting them next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have proven to be a tough nut to crack of late, with the last eight meetings yielding three wins apiece and two stalemates.
Having recently picked up a first home win in seven matches, Saturday's hosts now go in search of consecutive wins in front of their fans for the first time since January.
Emmen fell to a comprehensive 3-1 defeat against defending champions Ajax in the sides' encounter at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on Sunday evening.
First-half goals from Jorge Sanchez and Steven Bergwijn left Dick Lukkien's men with a mountain to climb in the second period, although Jeremy Antonisse did manage to pull one back, only for Dusan Tadic to put the result beyond doubt 10 minutes from time.
With 25 points amassed from 29 outings so far, the Kannibals sit 16th in the league standings, two points adrift of safety heading into the final five rounds of matches.
Currently with the second-worst defensive record away from home in the entire division, Saturday's visitors will need to tighten up at the back to stand a good chance of preserving their top-flight status.
Team News
Jeff Hardeveld, Mart Lieder and Maikel Kieftenbeld remain ruled out for Emmen through knee injuries, while Danny Hoesen is sidelined with a hip problem.
Rui-Jorge Mendes and Metehan Guclu will also not be involved due to injury, but the former is drawing increasingly close to returning to action.
Jeremy Antonisse opened his account for the away side at the ninth time of asking last time out, and the 21-year-old will be looking to pick up where he left off.
Heerenveen's Andries Noppert is still unavailable through a hip injury which has seen him fail to feature since the final week of January.
Joining Noppert on the hosts' treatment table are Sven van Beek and Joost van Aken, who are currently nursing long-term Achilles and knee problems respectively.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mous; Kohlert, Bochniewicz, Van Ottele, Van Ewijk; Tahiri, Haye; Sahraoui, Van Amersfoort, Olsson; Van Hooijdonk
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Burnet, Dirksen, Araujo, Te Wierik; Antonisse, El Messaoudi, Veendorp, Romeny; Zivkovic, Diemers
We say: Heerenveen 2-1 Emmen
Emmen have struggled to find the back of the net away from home all-season long, but we can see them scoring here. That said, we are tipping Heerenveen to come out on top, albeit by only a narrow margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
