Aiming to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat, FC Volendam play host to FC Utrecht on Saturday evening in round 14 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season.
On the other hand, the away side make the trip to Kras Stadion on a high as they go in search of a fifth straight victory across all competitions.
Match preview
Utrecht showed great resolve to overcome the challenge of Groningen in a narrow 2-1 victory when the sides faced off at the Stadion Galgenwaard on Sunday.
Henk Fraser's side went behind five minutes shy of half time to Florian Kruger's men, but they managed to draw level through Taylor Booth after which Sander van de Streek grabbed a late winner.
With maximum points from their each of their last three matches, the Domstedelingen are currently seventh in the Eredivisie table, five points off a top-four place.
Coming up next is a clash versus an opposing outfit who have emerged triumphant in just two of the 19 encounters between the teams in the last two decades.
Having won four of their most recent five matches away from home, Saturday's visitors are firing on all cylinders on the road and will take some stopping.
Since their cup victory over Harkemase Boys, Volendam were beaten for the third game running following a 2-0 defeat against Feyenoord last Sunday.
First-half goals from Danilo and Sebastian Szymanski proved to be enough to put Wim Jonk's men to the sword in a largely one-sided affair.
As a result, Het Nieuwe Oranje remain rooted to the bottom of the league standings, a whopping six points adrift of safety already after just 13 matches.
Saturday's visitors have let in the second-most goals on home turf so far and will need to be wary of being undone defensively far too easily in front of their fans once again.
Team News
Francesco Antonucci is yet to make an appearance for Volendam since August due to an ankle injury, and the Belgian is ruled out of this weekend's affair as well.
Carel Eiting will be looking to come up trumps for the hosts once again having directly contributed to four goals in his last four home appearances.
Django Warmerdam, Nick Viergever and Tommy St Jago are currently sidelined with knee injuries and will not play any part for Utrecht in this one.
Midfielders Mimoun Mahi and Bart Ramselaar are also unavailable for the away side, while Ramon Hendriks is not expected to feature again this season after rupturing his cruciate ligament.
FC Volendam possible starting lineup:
Stankovic; James, Mirani, Mbuyamba, Plat; Eiting, Oristanio, Benamar; El Kadiri, Muhren, Van Mieghem
FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
Barkas; Van der Maarel, Sagnan, Van der Hoorn, Klaiber; Toornstra, Booth, Brouwers, Van de Streek; Douvikas, Redan
We say: FC Volendam 1-3 FC Utrecht
Volendam have kept just one clean sheet this season, and we expect their trend of defensive struggles to continue this weekend en route to a comfortable victory for Utrecht come the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
