Two of last season's top 10 go head-to-head as Sparta Rotterdam and Heracles face off in round two of the new Eredivisie campaign at the Het Kasteel on Saturday.
The teams will look to bounce back and kickstart their 2021-22 journey after they were both defeated in their respective opening-day encounters last time out.
Match preview
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Sparta Rotterdam were annihilated in their season opener versus Utrecht at the Stadion Galgenwaard on Sunday, when they suffered a 4-0 loss.
Henk Fraser's men found themselves trailing in next to no time as Adam Maher opened the scoring inside two minutes, before second-half goals from Mark van der Maarel, Anastasios Douvikas and a late Simon Gustafsson penalty completed the rout.
Following that heavy defeat, De Kasteelheren find themselves in the bottom three as things stand, but there is no cause for concern yet.
Awaiting Saturday's hosts next is the visit of an opposing side who recent matches against leave little to choose between the teams.
In the last 14 meetings, there have been four wins apiece for either side with six stalemates, including both of last season's league meetings.
Heracles were no match for PSV Eindhoven as they suffered a 2-0 defeat when the sides met at the Erve Asito on Saturday.
Bruma and Noni Madueke were on target in either half as Frank Wormuth's men simply had no answer to what was thrown at them.
The Heraclieden failed to win any of their final four Eredivisie games away from home last term and will be keen to improve their fortunes on the road.
Saturday's visitors conceded 12 goals in those matches while scoring only two, so improvements have to be made on both ends of the field.
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Team News
Heracles' Janis Blaswich and Ismail Azzaoui are ruled out with muscle injuries and will play no part in Saturday's fixture.
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 games.
Twenty-year-old Elias Oubella also misses out through a knee injury, but the defender is not far off a return to action.
Emmanuel Emagha netted both goals for Sparta in the 2-1 friendly victory, and he will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:
Okoye; Pinto, Heylen, Vriends, Abels; Auassar, Harroui, Smeets; Engels, Van Crooy, Thy
Heracles possible starting lineup:
Bucker; Quagliata, Knoester, Schoofs, Fadiga; De La Torre, Kiomourtzoglou, Vloet; Laursen, Bakis, Basacikoglu
We say: Sparta Rotterdam 1-1 Heracles
The teams know a lot about each other having faced off numerous times over the years. While neither side will be too satisfied with a point, we are backing a share of the spoils in this one with both sides picking up their first point of the campaign.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
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 Sparta Rotterdam win with a probability of 55.43%. A draw had a probability of 23.7% and a win for Heracles had a probability of 20.92%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sparta Rotterdam win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.62%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.08%) and 2-1 (9.76%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.25%), while for a Heracles win it was 0-1 (6.48%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.3% likelihood.
