Having gone through the month of March unbeaten, Sparta Rotterdam welcome PEC Zwolle to the Het Kasteel on Saturday in their first outing of April.
On the other hand, Zwolle make the trip to Rotterdam in search of back-to-back league wins for the first time this season.
Match preview
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Sparta Rotterdam failed to make it three wins on the spin as they were held to a 1-1 draw against Heracles at the Erve Asito on March 21.
Henk Fraser's men took the lead just before the hour mark through Lennart Thy, but Rai Vloet restored parity in the third minute of stoppage time.
Nonetheless, De Kasteelheren have now picked up eight points from their last four games, moving up into 12th place as a result.
Next up for them is a clash against Zwolle who came out on top in a 4-0 rout when the sides met in September's reverse fixture.
Sparta have struggled in this fixture of late and are winless in the last five editions with their last victory coming back in 2016.
After suffering two defeats on the bounce, Zwolle returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 triumph over VVV-Venlo two Sundays ago.
The game was level at half time, but Slobodan Tedic and Thomas Lam scored either side of a Roy Gelmi strike in the second half to give the hosts all three points.
Bert Konterman's men are now seven points away from the relegation zone in the aftermath of their latest victory, and it is almost safe to say that they have done enough to stay afloat this term.
However, with games against four of the current top eight to come in the final seven gameweeks, matches against teams around them such as Saturday's clash in Rotterdam become more crucial than ever.
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Team News
Sparta are set to be without 29-year-old Tim Coremans, who has been nursing a shoulder injury for the past nine months.
Joining him on the sidelines for the hosts is Mario Engels, as the German midfielder is yet to recover from an ankle injury.
Lennart Thy's opener versus Heracles was his 10th goal of the season, and he now prepares to face his old club for whom he scored 15 goals in 41 Eredivisie appearances.
Sai van Wermeskerken put in a superb performance for Zwolle against Groningen, but that came at a personal cost as he sustained a calf injury.
Slobodan Tedic came off the bench to score the winning goal for his side last time out, and he could be rewarded with his first start since making his comeback from a damaged rib.
Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:
Okoye; Vriends, Heylen, Beugelsdijk, Fortes; Auassar, Burger, Smeets; Duarte, Mijnans, Thy
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Zetterer; Nakayama, Van Polen, Kersten, Paal; Huiberts, Lam, Reijnders; Pherai, Buitink, Misidjan
We say: Sparta Rotterdam 2-1 PEC Zwolle
Sparta come into this one as the more confident of the two sides following their recent upturn in form. While we expect a close affair here, we are backing the home team to claim all three points, albeit in a narrow fashion.
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 Sparta Rotterdam win with a probability of 46.85%. A win for PEC Zwolle had a probability of 28.66% and a draw had a probability of 24.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sparta Rotterdam win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.48%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.37%) and 2-0 (7.69%). The likeliest PEC Zwolle win was 0-1 (7.1%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.53%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 3.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sparta Rotterdam would win this match.
