Fresh off the back of their first Eredivisie win of the campaign last time out, NEC travel to the Erve Asito on Sunday to face off against Heracles.
While the home side are still yet to record a victory this term, they come into the contest having picked up their first point of the season in their last outing.
Match preview
Heracles avoided a second defeat on the trot as they came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw versus Sparta Rotterdam at the Het Kasteel on Saturday.
Trailing at half time thanks to Bart Vriends's opener, Frank Wormuth's men responded in the second period through Delano Burgzorg who restored parity less than 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute.
As a result, the Heraclieden have now moved up to 13th spot on the log and will hope to continue their surge up the table in the coming weeks.
Next up for them is a first competitive fixture in four years with an opposing side against whom they have a mixed record in fixtures involving the teams.
Sunday's hosts have won six, lost six and drawn four of the last 16 clashes with the most recent one being a 1-0 defeat in a pre-season friendly on July 24.
Hosting an Eredivisie game for the first time in nearly half a decade, NEC had too much for PEC Zwolle as they cruised to a 2-0 victory on Friday.
Early and late first-half strikes from Ali Akman and Jonathan Okita respectively secured all three points for Rogier Meijer's men in Nijmegen.
The Eniesee are two points and two places better off than this weekend's opponents, who would leapfrog them should they manage to come out victorious.
Sunday's visitors were hit for five in their last outing away from home and they will be wary of being on the receiving end of another heavy defeat on the road.
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Team News
Heracles' Marco Rente is not expected to feature as he remains sidelined with a muscle injury which saw him sit out all of his side's pre-season friendlies.
Twenty-year-old Elias Oubella made only one appearance across all competitions last term due to a knee injury, and the defender is still unavailable for the hosts.
First-choice goalkeeper Janis Blaswich continues to nurse a muscle problem, meaning that Koen Bucker will retain his place between the sticks.
Veteran defender Rens van Eijden is ruled out with a knee problem, and he will sit out a seventh consecutive game dating back to Nijmegen's final Eerste Divisie clash versus NAC Breda.
This weekend's visitors will also be without the services of Mathias De Wolf, who is without a timetable for his return from a long-term injury.
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Bucker; Quagliata, Knoester, Schoofs, Fadiga; De La Torre, Kiomourtzoglou, Vloet; Laursen, Bakis, Basacikoglu
NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; El Karouani, Odenthal, Marquez, Van Rooij; Schone, Proper, Duelund; Akman, Bruijn, Okita
We say: Heracles 2-1 NEC
The visitors will be fired up for the encounter following their maiden victory of the season and rightly so. On the other hand, the hosts will fancy themselves to build on last week's point and claim all three in this one.
We are expecting an end-to-end affair with goals at both ends and a narrow win for Heracles at the sound of the final whistle in Almelo.
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 Heracles win with a probability of 52.59%. A win for NEC had a probability of 24.88% and a draw had a probability of 22.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Heracles win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.41%) and 2-0 (7.9%). The likeliest NEC win was 1-2 (6.34%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.32%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 5.5% likelihood.
