In search of a fourth consecutive victory, AZ Alkmaar prepare for the challenge of Vitesse at the AFAS Stadion on Saturday in round 15 of the 2022-23 Eredivisie season.
Meanwhile, the away side make the trip this weekend looking to end a barren run of five games across all competitions since their last victory.
Match preview
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AZ Alkmaar eased past the threat of Atalanta courtesy of a narrow 1-0 victory in last Thursday's encounter between the teams at the Gewiss Stadium.
Hakon Evjen opened the scoring within 60 seconds of the start of the contest, and that was enough to get the job done for Pascal Jansen's men.
The Cheeseheads, who claimed an impressive victory over PSV Eindhoven in their last league outing, sit fourth in the Eredivisie table, four points off top spot.
Coming up next is the task of facing off against an opposing outfit with little to choose, as the most recent eight meetings have yielded three wins apiece for either side and two stalemates.
Unbeaten in all but one of 17 home matches heading into Saturday's contest, the hosts have proven themselves to be a real force to reckon with in front of their fans.
Aiming to cap off 2022 on a winning note, Vitesse fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Sparta Rotterdam in a friendly matchup on December 22.
Dirk Abels broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time to put Phillip Cocu's to the sword in what was a hard-fought contest at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel.
Picking up two of the last nine points available prior to the World Cup, Geel en Zwart have dropped to 13th in the standings and hold only a slender two-point lead over the bottom three.
Winless in their last five games on enemy territory, Saturday's visitors will need to turn their away fortunes around to pull well clear of relegation danger.
Team News
AZ Alkmaar's Zinho Vanheusden remains sidelined with a broken foot which is set to keep the defender out of contention for Saturday's clash.
Bruno Martins Indi is also unavailable, with the Netherlands international on course to miss a 14th game in a row due to a long-term muscle problem.
Jens Odgaard has found the back of the net in seven of his last eight home appearances for the hosts and is certainly one to keep an eye on here.
Bartosz Bialek will be expected to feature right from the off having started each of his side's two matches following his return to action from a brief injury layoff.
Formerly of Vitesse, 26-year-old Riechedly Bazoer will be looking forward to the visit of his former teammates for the first time since his departure.
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Verhulst; Kerkez, Bazoer, Chatzidiakos, Sugawara; Clasie, De Wit, Reijnders; Karlsson, Pavlidis, Odgaard
Vitesse possible starting lineup:
Reiziger; Wittek, Cornelisse, Flamingo, Arcus; Tronstad, Kozlowski; Manhoef, Bero, Yapi; Bialek
We say: AZ Alkmaar 3-1 Vitesse
AZ's record on home turf this term means that it is difficult to look past them coming away with all three points here, and while we expect Vitesse to put up a decent fight, we expect the hosts to emerge triumphant in a relatively comfortable manner.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
