The 2017/18 Eredivisie season is getting closer and closer to its climax but there’s still lots of football to be played between now and the end of the campaign. PSV are running away with the title with a seven-point gap over Ajax in 2^nd but Tuesday night’s fixture concerns two teams further down in the pecking order. Zwolle, who are currently 5^th, host 8^th-placed Heerenveen as both sides look to pressure the teams in the European places.

STATS

• Zwolle are having a good season so far and are still very much in with a shout of challenging for the Europa League as teams as low as 8^th can still qualify for Europe through the play-off method. However, their form has dropped in recent weeks with three losses in five matches. They are currently on a run of two consecutive losses against AZ Alkmaar and most recently, PSV. They conceded eight goals in those two fixtures, scoring just once so they must tighten up their backline.
• Heerenveen have started to pick up their form as they slowly creep towards the top positions. They have won three of their last five in the league and in the opposite fashion to their upcoming opponents, they have won their last two. These wins have come against Sparta Rotterdam and FC Twente with a single goal enough to get over the line in the latter.
• Mustafa Saymak has been in good goalscoring form this term and he is Zwolle’s leading scorer in the league with seven strikes. Youness Mokhtar is close behind with six goals.
• Heerenveen have struggled to find an out-and-out striker so far this season and that might be one of the reasons why they are in mid-table at the moment. They have two players with four goals: Morten Thorsby and Henk Veerman.

HEAD TO HEAD

It’s no surprise to see that Zwolle have dominated the recent meetings against Heerenveen with Tuesday’s hosts winning three of the last five and losing just once. The two sides have already played this season and it was Zwolle who came out 2-1 winners on Heerenveen’s own patch. Saymak got the winner just after half-time as the teams had gone in at 1-1. Their match in 2004 was the last time both sides didn’t score in one of their meetings at Zwolle’s stadium.

ZWOLLE NEWS

Zwolle are currently level on points with Feyenoord so they will be able to overtake them in 4^th, pushing them into a possible automatic Europa League spot. They only have two injured players: Dico Koppers and Bram van Polen.

Latest matches: PEC Zwolle

03.02.2018	Ered	PSV Eindhoven	PEC Zwolle	4:0	L
31.01.2018	KNVB	AZ Alkmaar	PEC Zwolle	4:1	L
27.01.2018	Ered	PEC Zwolle	Vitesse Arnhem	1:2	L
20.01.2018	Ered	PEC Zwolle	NAC Breda	1:0	W
12.01.2018	Club	PEC Zwolle	SF Lotte	5:1	W

HEERENVEEN NEWS

Three points could take Heerenveen into 7^th above Utrecht but they won’t be confident of a victory away at Zwolle. They’ll be even less confident as they are missing Warner Hahn and Luciano Slagveer for the important clash.

Latest matches: SC Heerenveen

03.02.2018	Ered	SC Heerenveen	FC Twente Enschede	1:0	W
26.01.2018	Ered	SC Heerenveen	Sparta Rotterdam	2:1	W
20.01.2018	Ered	Vitesse Arnhem	SC Heerenveen	1:1	D
11.01.2018	Club	SC Heerenveen	RSC Anderlecht	0:0	D
23.12.2017	Ered	AZ Alkmaar	SC Heerenveen	3:1	L

SUMMARY

Despite having the better form, Heerenveen won’t be expecting to take anything from Tuesday’s match especially because they are away from home. Zwolle will look to utilise their strong home support and pair it with their better squad to come away with all three points. It is certainly a match that could quite easily go either way but the hosts have the slight advantage.