Preview: Emmen vs. AZ Alkmaar - prediction, team news, lineups

Meanwhile, the home side will be looking to pick up a second consecutive victory on their own patch and bounce back from a heavy defeat in their most recent outing.

Match preview

AZ Alkmaar had to settle for a share of the spoils in their meeting with NEC Nijmegen on Thursday, which ended in a 1-1 draw at the AFAS Stadion.

Pascal Jansen's men went behind to Ivan Marquez's opener less than 10 minutes into the second half before drawing level through Jens Odgaard.

Consequently, the Cheeseheads have moved up to fourth place in the Eredivisie table, level on points with Feyenoord and two behind Ajax and PSV Eindhoven.

Lying in store next is the challenge of an opposing side who have lost all seven of the previous meetings between the teams across all competitions.

With five victories from their last six matches away from home, Sunday's visitors will head into this weekend's encounter with the wind in their sails.

Emmen were comprehensively thrashed 4-0 by Feyenoord when the two sides went head-to-head at De Kuip in round four's clash on Saturday evening.

Dick Lukkien's men gave a good account of themselves in the first half before second-half goals from Quinten Timber, Santiago Gimenez, Jacob Rasmussen and Sebastian Szymanski put them to the sword.

Having recorded four points from as many games so far, the Drenthe-based side are in 12th place in the league table and will be aiming to put together a decent run of results.

Unbeaten in nine straight games on home turf dating back to March, Sunday's hosts have proven themselves to be a tough nut to crack in front of their fans.

Emmen Eredivisie form:

Emmen form (all competitions):

AZ Alkmaar Eredivisie form:

AZ Alkmaar form (all competitions):

Team News

The duo of Jesper Karlsson and Zinho Vanheusden are unavailable for AZ as they remain sidelined through muscle and ankle injuries respectively.

Riechedly Bazoer is also set to miss out for the away side through a muscle problem which has seen him miss each of the last two games.

Twenty-three-year-old Jens Odgaard found the back of the net on his return to the starting XI and is expected to retain his place in the lineup.

Emmen's Lentini Caciano is a guaranteed absentee for this weekend's contest as the Dutch midfielder continues to nurse a muscle problem.

Kyan van Dorp and Mart Lieder are both down with long-term knee injuries, with the latter yet to feature since the end of February.

Emmen possible starting lineup:

Oelschlagel; Hardeveld, Veldmate, Araujo, Veendorp; Bernadou, Vlak; Romeny, Diemers, Mendes; Zivkovic

AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:

Verhulst; Chatzidiakos, Beukema, Dekker, Kerkez; Clasie, Reijnders; Evjen, De Wit, Van Brederode; Odgaard

We say: Emmen 1-3 AZ Alkmaar

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