NAC Breda and Heracles will raise the curtain on matchday 21 of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season with a meeting at the Rat Verlegh Stadion on Friday evening.
The home side just about came up short against reigning champions PSV Eindhoven last time out, while the visitors had to make do with a point against Groningen.
Match preview
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Off the back of three straight league defeats, Breda got themselves back to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 triumph over FC Twente on January 19, six days before their clash against PSV at the Philips Stadion.
Having broken the deadlock just shy of the half-hour mark, Carl Hoefkens's men were on course to upset the odds for a second week running before a quickfire Guus Til double and Ricardo Pepi's stoppage-time strike turned the game around, although there was still time for Kacper Kostorz to pull one back.
It is now four defeats from the last five league matches either side of the new year for Breda off the back of consecutive victories over Almere City and Sparta Rotterdam in the two outings prior to that.
Parel van het Zuiden are still outside European contention at the moment as they currently sit ninth in the Eredivisie table, albeit adrift of eighth-placed Fortuna Sittard only on goal difference.
However, no team has picked up fewer points over the last five games than Breda, who are set for another tough assignment given their record against Friday's opponents, having lost four straight meetings, including a 2-0 loss in November's reverse fixture.
With just two points separating them from Zwolle in 13th, Friday's hosts know that a defeat in their upcoming affair could see them plunged into the lower echelons of the standings for the first time since late October.
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After going five games without a win between November 8 and December 14, Heracles have turned a corner, having gone unbeaten across their subsequent six competitive games across all competitions.
Cup victories over NEC Nijmegen and De Graafschap, either side of a 1-1 draw against Sparta, were followed by a 2-0 win over Almere City after which Erwin van de Looi's men played out back-to-back stalemates against FC Utrecht and, most recently, Groningen.
Returning from an injury layoff with a bang, Luka Kulenovic's 20th-minute strike had the Heraclieden on their way to a first home victory in five matches before Romano Postema levelled matters five minutes into the second period.
While Heracles will be disappointed not to have secure maximum points given their numerical superiority in the final knockings of their most recent involvement, they have now moved three points clear of the drop zone.
Following victories in each of their last two away clashes leading up to Friday's encounter, the visitors will now set out to get the job done on enemy territory once again before their KNVB-Beker quarter-final clash against Utrecht.
Team News
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Cherrion Valerius is unavailable to play any part for NAC Breda in this one as the Dutchman continues to battle with a knee problem that has ruled him out since October.
Slovenian starlet Leo Sauer has now directly contributed to two of his side's last three goals and will be looking to come up with the goods once again.
Nikolai Laursen is still facing an extended spell on the sidelines with a knee problem, while Sava-Arangel Cestic will also miss Friday's clash due to an ankle problem.
Stijn Bultman still awaits his first outing of the season due to a long-term injury problem, and the 20-year-old is still a considerable way off making a return to action.
NAC Breda possible starting lineup:
Bielica; Kemper, Van den Bergh, Greiml, Busi; Balard, Kaied, Janosek, Sauer; Van Hooijdonk, Omarsson
Heracles possible starting lineup:
De Keijzer; Milani, Mesik, Mirani, Benita; Podgoreanu, Scheperman, De Keersmaecker, Engels; Hornkamp, Kulenovic
We say: NAC Breda 2-1 Heracles
Both teams have had little difficulty finding the back of the net of late, and we expect neither of them to come away with a clean sheet here. That said, we are backing the home side to just about get the job done at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
