Preview: NEC vs. RKC Waalwijk - prediction, team news, lineups

Aiming to avoid a third straight Eredivisie defeat, RKC Waalwijk make the journey to Stadion de Goffert on Saturday to square off against NEC.

Meanwhile, the home side go in search of back to back league wins for the first time since the turn of the year having ended a four-game winless streak last time out.

Match preview

NEC secured their first league victory of 2022 at the fourth time of asking by beating Heerenveen 1-0 at the Abe Lenstra Stadion on Sunday.

Elayis Tavsan broke the deadlock four minutes shy of the interval to secure all three points for Rogier Meijer's men in what was a hard-fought contest.

Consequently, the Eniesee have moved up to eighth place in the Eredivisie table and are now just five points off the last European place currently occupied by FC Utrecht.

Awaiting them next is a clash against an opposing outfit who have lost three of the last four meetings between the teams by a combined score of 7-2.

However, Saturday's hosts did suffer a narrow 2-1 defeat in December's reverse fixture, and they will have one eye on exacting revenge this weekend.

Waalwijk came away empty-handed from their meeting with title-chasing Feyenoord at the Mandemakers Stadion on Sunday, which ended in a 2-0 loss.

Orkun Kokcu opened the scoring on the stroke of half time to leave Joseph Oosting's men trailing at the break before Jorrit Hendrix put the result beyond doubt in the penultimate minute of normal time.

RKC have dropped down to 13th place in the league standings following their most recent defeat and are now just three points clear of danger with 16 rounds of matches left to play.

Having managed just one away triumph all-season long, Saturday's visitors will need to turn things around on the road to avoid being sucked into a relegation scrap.

Team News

Sebbe Augustijns remains sidelined with a knee injury which he picked up back in December and the 22-year-old is still unavailable for Waalwijk.

The visitors will also have to make do with the absence of David Min who is yet to feature in the current campaign due to a long-term knee injury.

Roy Kuijpers grabbed a late winner in the reverse fixture but has failed to find the back of the net since then, and the forward will be looking to get on the scoresheet this weekend.

The duo of Joep van der Sluijs and Rens van Eijden are ruled out through knee injuries, while Mathias de Wolf is yet to fully recuperate from a muscle problem.

Pedro Ruiz faces the possibility of sitting out a 13th consecutive game through a leg injury but the Spaniard's return to action continues to draw increasingly close.

NEC possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Marquez, Guth, Odenthal; El Karouani, Schone, Barreto, Van Rooy; Okita, Tavsan, Mattsson

RKC Waalwijk possible starting lineup:
Vaessen; Touba, Meulensteen, Adewoye; Wouters, Gaari, Anita, Oukili, Bakari; Odgaard, Kramer

We say: NEC 1-0 RKC Waalwijk

Buoyed by last week's triumph, NEC will head into this one brimming with confidence as they prepare for the visit of a Waalwijk side who have not fared well on their travels so far. We fancy the home side to emerge victorious, albeit by only a narrow margin.

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