The hosts will be looking to respond off the back of a first defeat since the turn of the year last time out, while the away side go in search of a third consecutive win.

Match preview

Heracles fell to a 3-0 defeat against league leaders Ajax when the teams faced off at the Johan Cruyff ArenA on Sunday.

Davy Klaassen, Sebastien Haller and Kenneth Taylor all got on the scoresheet as Frank Wormuth's men were thoroughly outclassed in Amsterdam.

With 20 points from 21 games so far, the Heraclieden are now 15th in the Eredivisie table, albeit with a four-point buffer over the drop zone.

They will set out to steer clear of danger this weekend against an opposing side who have won seven of the last eight meetings including a 1-0 triumph in the reverse fixture.

Friday's hosts boast the seventh-best home record in the division and should fancy themselves to come out on top at the end of the 90 minutes.

Utrecht picked up two league victories on the spin for the first time since October as they saw off the threat of Cambuur in a 3-2 thriller on Saturday.

Rene Hake's men found themselves two goals behind in the opening 12 minutes thanks to an Erik Schouten brace before Anastasios Dovikas replied with two goals of his own to level the scores after which Henk Veerman turned the game on its head with a second-half winner.

Consequently, the Domstedelingen have pulled five points clear of the chasing park in the race for the last Conference League playoff spot.

Having amassed just 11 of their 35 points on the road, Friday's visitors must get going away from home if they are to remain in the driving seat in the battle for continental qualification.

Heracles Eredivisie form:

Heracles form (all competitions):

FC Utrecht Eredivisie form:

FC Utrecht form (all competitions):

Team News

Mike van der Hoorn was hauled off with an injury half an hour into Utrecht's last outing, and the 29-year-old is a doubt for Friday's game.

January Signing Henk Veerman is expected to be named in the starting XI for this one after he came off the bench to good effect in the aforementioned match.

Defenders Reda Akmum and Christopher Mamengi remain sidelined with knee injuries and will not feature for the away side.

Heracles' Justin Hoogma still awaits his first appearance of the season, while Kasper Jakobsen is yet to play since an opening-day defeat to PSV Eindhoven back in August.

Orestis Kiomourtzoglou has scored two goals in his last three home outings and will be looking to deliver the goods once again.

Heracles possible starting lineup:
Blaswich; Bakboord, Rente, Knoester, Quagliata; Schoofs, De la Torre, Kiomourtzoglou; Laursen, Sierhuis, Basacikoglu

FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
De Keijzer; Van der Kust, Janssen, Van der Maarel, Warmerdam; Maher, Boussaid, Timber; Veerman, Mahi, Douvikas

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We say: Heracles 1-2 FC Utrecht

Utrecht have the upper hand heading into the clash and are huge favourites to emerge victorious, and while we expect Heracles to put up a good fight, we are backing the away side to carry the day.

Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

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 FC Utrecht win with a probability of 38.96%. A win for Heracles had a probability of 35.21% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.

The most likely scoreline for a FC Utrecht win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.5%) and 0-2 (6.51%). The likeliest Heracles win was 1-0 (8.83%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.25%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 8.8% likelihood.