Off the back of contrasting results in their respective last outings, Emmen and NEC square up against each other at De Oude Meerdijk on Sunday afternoon.

Having suffered a 3-1 defeat in the reverse fixture, the home side also head into this weekend's encounter aiming to exact revenge on their visitors.

Match preview

NEC were beaten on home turf for the first time since early August courtesy of a 4-2 loss against PSV Eindhoven at Stadion de Goffert on Saturday.

A Luuk de Jong brace either side of goals from Olivier Boscagli and Joey Veerman left Rogier Meijer's men with a mountain to climb before Oussama Tannane scored twice in the final 30 minutes to halve the deficit.

Consequently, the Eniesee have missed the opportunity to climb into the top half of the Eredivisie table and remain 10th, albeit only just one point off the last European spot.

Coming up next is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams of late as the most recent seven encounters have yielded three wins apiece and a draw.

Having already enjoyed a more-than-decent return to the top tier of Dutch football, Sunday's visitors will be looking to take it one step further with a push for continental football in the final stretch of the campaign.

Emmen picked up a first league win away from home in just under five months with a 2-1 victory over Cambuur at the Cambuur Stadion on Saturday.

Dick Lukkien's men fell behind to Mitchel Paulissen's opener with a quarter of the game left to play after which late goals from Ahmed El Messaoudi and Jeroen Veldmate turned the contest on its head.

As a result, the Kannibals have moved out of the relegation zone in the standings, but only on goal difference, with a tally of 24 points from their 27 outings so far.

With games against five of the current top seven still to come, Sunday's visitors go in search of a morale-boosting triumph ahead of a tough run of matches to conclude the season.

Team News

Jeff Hardeveld, Mart Lieder and Maikel Kieftenbeld continue to nurse knee injuries, and none of them will play any part for Emmen in this one.

Rui-Jorge Mendes and Metehan Guclu will also not be involved for the hosts due to injury, but fit-again Oussama Darfalou could be in line for his first start since returning to action.

Twenty-four-year-old Jari Vlak missed his side's last outing due to a knock, and his involvement this weekend is currently hanging in the balance.

Mathias de Wolf remains unavailable for NEC as the 21-year-old continues to recover from a muscle problem which he suffered earlier in the campaign.

The away side will also have to make do with the absence of Dutch duo Robin Roefs and Calvin Verdonk, with the former still yet to feature this term.

Emmen possible starting lineup:
Van der Hart; Burnet, Veldmate, Araujo, Te Wierik; Veendorp, El Messaoudi; Antonisse, Diemers, Romeny; Zivkovic

NEC possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; El Karouani, Sandler, Marquez, Van Rooy; Schone, Proper; Tavsan, Tannane, Mattsson; Dimata

We say: Emmen 1-1 NEC

Albeit for very different reasons, neither team can afford to come away empty-handed from this weekend's game. We are anticipating a nervy affair with little goalmouth action and a share of the spoils come the sound of the final whistle.


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