Two teams who could really do with a victory kick off round 13 of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season as Go Ahead Eagles welcome Almere City to De Adelaarshorst on Saturday afternoon.
The home side are without a win in their last four matches heading into this one, while the visitors are currently on a run of three straight defeats across all competitions.
Match preview
Go Ahead Eagles make their return to action this weekend aiming to string together a decent run of results like they managed after the first international break of the campaign back in September.
On that occasion, Paul Simonis's men picked up three wins and a draw from their next four outings but have since suffered defeats at the hands of Feyenoord and Heerenveen either side of stalemates against AZ Alkmaar and PEC Zwolle.
The pride of the IJssel Kowet's defeat to Heerenveen last time out has seen them drop down to 10th place in the Eredivisie table, albeit just a point shy of eighth-place NEC in the race for the final Conference League playoff spot.
Looking to make up some ground on their fellow European hopefuls, Go Ahead Eagles now target a return to winning ways in front of their fans, where they have not won since emphatically beating Heracles Almelo 4-1 in early October.
Nonetheless, Saturday's hosts will fancy their chances of coming away with maximum points this weekend having avoided defeat in all but one of their last 11 meetings against the visitors, recording six victories during that time.
After failing to win any of their opening nine Eredivisie matches of the season, Almere City finally looked to have got their season up and running with a hard-fought 1-0 triumph over NEC on October 25.
However, Hedwiges Maduro's men have lost each of their three outings since then, with a disappointing 3-0 exit to Tweede Divisie side Quick Boys in the KNVB-Beker preceding consecutive league defeats against RKC Waalwijk and most recently Feyenoord.
Having gone behind to Hwang In-beom's opener last time out, De Zwarte Schapen wasted no time levelling matters through Kornelius Hansen before goals from Ramiz Zerrouki, Thomas Beelen and Anis Hadj Moussa settled matters.
A largely underwhelming tally of just six points amassed from twice as many league matches this term means that Almere City currently sit bottom but one in the league standings, six points adrift of safety.
They will need to get their act right at both ends of the pitch to turn things around, having scored the fewest goals in the entire division (six), while only bottom-place Waalwijk (31) have conceded more times than Saturday's visitors (27).
Team News
Soren Tengstedt has missed each of Go Ahead Eagles' last five matches with a knee injury, and the Dane is a major doubt for this weekend's encounter as well.
Gerrit Nauber and Joris Kramer have been ever-presents for the home side this term, and both men are expected to feature in the heart of the defence either side of Aske Adelgaard and Mats Deijl.
Forward Baptiste Guillaume continues to work his way back up to full fitness and is nearing a return to action from an injury problem that has sidelined him since early October.
Twenty-three-year-old Alex Balboa is still out of contention for the visitors due to a knee injury and has made just four appearances all-season long.
Still awaiting his first goal of the campaign after nine straight blanks, forward Junior Kadile could be dropped to the bench for this one in favour of Faiz Mattoir.
Go Ahead Eagles possible starting lineup:
Plogmann; Adelgaard, Kramer, Nauber, Deijl; Linthorst, Llansana; O Edvardsen, Breum, Antman; V Edvardsen
Almere City possible starting lineup:
Bakker; Zagaritis, Lawrence, Jacobs, Visus, Akujobi; Haye, Tahiri, Van de Kamp; Hansen, Mattoir
We say: Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 Almere City
Almere City are one of four teams still without an away victory so far, and we cannot see that changing in Saturday's affair.
We are backing Go Ahead Eagles to get the job done in front of their fans at the sound of the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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