Heerenveen and FC Twente draw the curtain on matchday 22 of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season with a meeting at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Sunday evening.
Neither team was able to come away with maximum points last time out off the back of respective 2-2 draws, and they will both be keen to go on better this time around.
Match preview
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Winless in nine of their 10 away league games prior, Heerenveen secured a rare victory on the road as they brushed NAC Breda aside courtesy of a 4-2 triumph on January 12 to kick off 2025 on a winning note.
Robin van Persie's men were sent crashing back down to earth four days later following a KNVB-Beker exit at the hands of lower league side Quick Boys before Ajax and Groningen heaped further misery to make it three straight defeats.
De Superfriezen managed to snap their losing run with a 2-2 stalemate against Fortuna Sittard on Saturday in a game where they led 1-0 and 2-1 in either half but were pegged back on both occasions.
Missing out on the opportunity to move into the top eight last time out, Heerenveen are 10th in the Eredivisie table with 25 points on the board from their 21 outings ahead of this weekend's involvement.
Currently without a win in six straight editions of this fixture, Sunday's hosts will be keen to get the better of their upcoming opponents and avenge a 2-0 defeat in September's reverse meeting at De Grolsch Veste.
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Returning to league action for the first time in just over two weeks after back-to-back European outings, Twente were denied a third win on the bounce by Go Ahead Eagles, who snatched a 2-2 draw from the jaws of defeat.
Joseph Oosting's men show great mettle to recover from an early setback and turn the game around thanks to a quickfire Sem Steijn brace, which looked set to secure all three points before Mats Deijl restored parity from the spot in stoppage time.
Having dropped down to sixth place in the league standings, the Tukkers have relinquished their Europa League spot to AZ Alkmaar at the moment and continue to lose ground on the teams just above them.
Sunday's affair is the second of a five-game slate for the visitors in February, after which they will have to navigate a two-legged Europa League tie with Bodo/Glimt, either side of a home clash against RKC Waalwijk.
With their last five games away from home yielding a combined 21 goals, Twente will be bracing themselves up for another enthralling affair on enemy territory, where they have not failed to score or managed to keep a clean sheet since December.
Team News
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Denzel Hall and Ion Nicolaescu are both injury concerns for Heerenveen here, with the latter set to miss a fourth straight game since coming off in January's cup exit against Quick Boys.
Defender Pawel Bochniewicz is also ruled out for the home side due to a knee problem, while Luuk Brouwers is yet to fully recuperate from a muscle problem.
Twente's Sam Lammers is drawing increasingly closer to returning to action, but this weekend's game is expected to come too soon for the Dutchman.
However, long-term absentee Younes Taha is still facing an extended spell on the sidelines with a broken leg that has kept him out of contention since the early exchanges of the current campaign.
Twenty-three-year-old Sem Steijn has netted eight times across his seven matches for the away side in 2025 and is definitely one to keep an eye on here.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Kohlert, Hopland, Kersten, Braude; Van Ee, Linday; Jahanbakhsh, Smans, Sebaoui; Lukovic
FC Twente possible starting lineup:
Unnerstall; Kuipers, Lagerbielke, Bruns, Van Rooy; Sadilek, Vlap; Ltaief, Steijn, Rots; Van Wolfswinkel
We say: Heerenveen 1-2 FC Twente
Both teams have been defensively porous to a large degree of late, and we expect neither of them to come away with a clean sheet.
That said, we just about fancy the visitors to narrowly edge out their hosts and get the job done in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
