PEC Zwolle will take on Fortuna Sittard this Saturday, with the hosts currently just one point ahead of their opponents in the Eredivisie table.
Sittard, meanwhile, will be hoping to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat against Sparta Rotterdam, recording their eighth loss of the season.
Match preview
PEC Zwolle currently sit in 12th place in the table, having picked up just three wins in their opening 16 matches.
Their latest result witnessed a narrow 1-0 loss against Feyenoord, with Luis Sinisterra scoring the only goal of the game.
However, it is worth noting that their home form has been fairly impressive this term, with John Stegeman's men unbeaten in their last five home matches, including an impressive 2-1 win against Vitesse last month.
If they manage a win this weekend, they could overtake both Heracles and Utrecht in the table, with the team still searching for their first victory of 2021.
On the other hand, Sittard were unfortunate to end their five-match unbeaten run on Wednesday, losing 1-0 to Sparta.
During the game, Lennart Thy netted in the early moments of the second half, with Sjors Ultee's side unable to find that all-important equaliser.
Besides their recent loss, Sittard appeared to be enduring a good spell of form - winning against Heerenveen, RKC Waalwijk and Heracles over the past month.
In fact, the visitors are unbeaten in their last three away games, with their latest away defeat coming against Vitesse in November.
They last met PEC Zwolle in that same month, with the result ending in a 2-2 draw between the two sides.
PEC Zwolle Eredivisie form: LDWDLW
PEC Zwolle form (all competitions): LDWDLL
Fortuna Sittard Eredivisie form: LWWDWW
Team News
PEC Zwolle will be without Slobodan Tedic for Saturday's clash, with the striker currently ruled out with a rib injury.
Stegeman could make a few changes to the side that lost against Feyenoord, perhaps bringing in Mustafa Saymak and Rico Strieder for Thomas Lam and Jesper Drost.
Meanwhile, Sittard fans will be pleased to know they have no injury concerns heading into this game, with Ultee able to choose from a fully fit squad.
The Dutch manager could also make a few changes to the starting XI that suffered a narrow defeat against Sparta, and he is expected to bring Mats Seuntjens back into the side.
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Zetterer; Van Wermeskerken, Kersten, Van Polen, Paal; Saymak, Strieder, Nakayama; Reijnders, Clement, Van Duinen
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Van Osch; Rota, Angha, Janseen, Cox; Rienstra, Tekie, Flemming; Semedo, Polter, Seuntjens
We say: PEC Zwolle 1-1 Fortuna Sittard
Although PEC Zwolle are currently ahead of Sittard in the table, the visitors have been in superb form recently, and will hope to at least pick up a point when they travel to Zwolle this Saturday.
Top betting 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 PEC Zwolle win with a probability of 49.32%. A win for Fortuna Sittard had a probability of 26.38% and a draw had a probability of 24.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a PEC Zwolle win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.99%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.54%) and 2-0 (8.3%). The likeliest Fortuna Sittard win was 0-1 (6.91%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.48%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 4% likelihood.
