Having both suffered cup defeats in midweek, Heerenveen and PEC Zwolle lock horns at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Saturday.
The home side will also be looking to complete a league double over their visitors following a 1-0 triumph in October's reverse fixture.
Match preview
Heerenveen have been dumped out of the KNVB-Beker round of 16 following a 1-0 defeat to Go Ahead Eagles on Tuesday.
Inigo Cordoba opened the scoring quarter of an hour into the contest and that was enough to sink Johnny Jansen's men.
De Superfriezen were beaten in both of their last two league games prior and are 10th in the Eredivisie table as things stand, albeit only a point off the top half.
Their next task sees them face off against an opposing side who have proven to be a tough nut to crack in recent times, with the last six meetings yielding three wins apiece for either team.
Off the back of a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Feyenoord in their previous home league game, Saturday's hosts will be keen to give their supporters reason to cheer come the full-whistle this time around.
After kicking off the new year with a 2-1 victory over Willem II, PEC Zwolle suffered a 2-1 defeat to lower league side Breda on Wednesday.
Dick Schreuder's men took the lead in the fifth minute through Mustafa Saymak before goals from Naoufal Bannis and Kaj de Rooy turned the game on its head.
The Blauwvingers still sit bottom of the league table but have now reduced the gap from safety to nine points following their aforementioned win over Willem II.
Saturday's hosts are one of two sides yet to record an away win this term, which is something that must change as soon as possible if they are to preserve their top-flight status come May.
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Team News
Zwolle's Samir Lagsir and Sam Kersten are both ruled out with knee injuries and will not feature this weekend.
The visitors are also missing 21-year-old Dean Huiberts, who has sat out the last five games due to a muscle injury.
Pawel Bochniewicz still awaits his first outing of the season as he remains sidelined with a long-term knee injury.
Siem de Jong had to make do with a place on the bench last time out, but the midfielder is expected back in the starting XI for this one.
Heerenveen possible starting lineup:
Mous; Kaib, Bakker, Van Beek, Van Ewijk; De Jong, Halilovic, Kongolo; H.Veerman, Musaba, Stevanovic
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Lamprou; Van Polen, Nakayama, Voet; Reijnders, Strieder, Van den Belt, De Wit; Saymak, Darfalou, Kastaneer
We say: Heerenveen 2-0 PEC Zwolle
Zwolle have been very poor away from home all-season long, which would give Heerenveen the belief that they can come away with all three points. We are tipping the home side to emerge victorious in a relatively comfortable manner.
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 44.42%. A win for PEC Zwolle had a probability of 29.69% and a draw had a probability of 25.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heerenveen win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.69%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.04%) and 2-0 (7.85%). The likeliest PEC Zwolle win was 0-1 (8.38%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.31%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood.
