Preview: Emmen vs. Vitesse - prediction, team news, lineups

The home side will be targeting an immediate return to winning ways having come away empty-handed last time out, while their visitors go in search of consecutive victories.

Match preview

Vitesse claimed their first triumph of 2023 on Saturday when they convincingly saw off the threat of Heerenveen at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.

After going behind to Pelle van Amersfoort's opener, Phillip Cocu's men restored parity through Bartosz Bialek before goals from Gabriel Vidovic and Million Manhoef turned the game on its head.

As a result, Geel en Zwart have moved up to 13th place in the Eredivisie table and now hold a healthy seven-point lead over the automatic relegation places.

Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with just one victory in the previous eight meetings between the teams across all competitions.

Off the back of a first away win in eight matches last time out, Saturday's visitors set out make it back to back wins on enemy territory for the first time since May.

Emmen were beaten away from home for the third league game running following a 2-0 defeat against RKC Waalwijk at the Mandemakers Stadion on Saturday.

Dick Lukkien's men fell behind to Michiel Kramer's third-minute opener after which Julian Lelieveld put the game to bed just shy of the half-hour mark.

With 15 points from their 19 points this term, the Kannibals have dropped to 16th place in the standings, albeit only three points adrift of safety.

Ahead of a crunch KNVB-Beker tie against PSV Eindhoven four days later, Saturday's hosts go in search of a morale-boosting victory this weekend.

Emmen Eredivisie form:

D

L

D

L

W

L

Emmen form (all competitions):

L

L

D

L

W

L

Vitesse Eredivisie form:

D

D

D

L

D

W

Team News

Emmen's duo of Jeff Hardeveld and Maikel Kieftenbeld are currently down with long-term knee injuries, ruling them out of Saturday's contest.

Ryan Mendes was absent from the home side's last outing due to a muscle injury which is set to rule him out of a second consecutive match.

Sondre Tronstad is yet to recuperate from a hamstring problem and the Norwegian will need to pass a late fitness test to play any part here.

Nineteen-year-old Gabriel Vidovic found the back of the net for the second straight game last time out, making him one to look out for in this one.

Emmen possible starting lineup:

Van der Hart; Veendorp, Veldmate, Heylen; Dirksen, El Messaoudi, Bernadou, Bouchouari; Diemers, Romeny, Darfalou

Vitesse possible starting lineup:

Scherpen; Wittek, Oroz, Flamingo, Arcus; Meulensteen, Kozlowski; Vidovic, Bero, Manhoef; Bialek

We say: Emmen 1-1 Vitesse

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