National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's FC Utrecht or RKC Waalwijk that keep their silverware dream alive.
One slightly interesting match fact is that this game is played on grass and that the visiting RKC Waalwijk have a different surface at their stadium (artifical turf). The impact of this is hard to measure exactly, but the visitors stats on grass is 7-5-16 (win-draw-loss) from 28 matches.
It's no vacation for neither FC Utrecht nor RKC Waalwijk as both were in action only a few days ago. Expect some tired legs on the pitch and/or possibly some changes to the lineups.
FC Utrecht form and stats
FC Utrecht participated in KNVB Beker the last season, where they reached the quarter-finals.FC Utrecht have played 4 Eredivisie games at their own stadium so far this season, resulting in 1-0-3 (wins-draws-losses).
Utrecht travelled for their previous game, a trip to Fortuna Sittard that ended 0-0. The FC Utrecht goalkeeper Barkas was crucial in the match against Fortuna Sittard last time out, making seven saves. Goalkeeper Barkas got the top rating on the team in that game; 9.11 out of ten. Barkas saved a penalty and topped it up with a clean sheet.
Before that game, the 4-3 home victory against Ajax.The hosts are favourites to win this game, with an estimated chance of about 55-60% of that outcome. Earlier Utrecht matches with similar probabilities have ended with 2 wins, 2 draws and 0 defeats (from 4 games).
FC Utrecht are certainly not overdoing their scoring at home in league matches, having created 5 goals in 4 games.
RKC Waalwijk form and stats
The visitors are W1-D0-L4 on the road this term. That's in the Eredivisie.
RKC Waalwijk lost away at Sparta Rotterdam (0-2) in their previous game and are perhaps starting to feel homesick. Buijs was the top performer of the team in that game with a match score of 7.35. The defender Buijs won 5 of 8 duels.
Before that, Waalwijk secured a home win against FC Volendam with the score 2-1.Looking at the earlier recent performances of RKC Waalwijk when being an outsider away as they are today, we find 6 matches with the visitors losing 3 times, drawing 3 and winning 0 games.
After this away game Waalwijk return home for a Eredivisie game against Feyenoord. That game is only four sleeps after this.
The visitors have scored 3 goals from 5 away games in the league, an average of less than one per game. RKC Waalwijk struggle to build an impenetrable defensive wall in away matches with a total of 9 goals conceded from these games.
Head 2 Head
FC Utrecht have avoided a loss in the last 6 matches (3-3-0) against RKC Waalwijk.Top Goalscorers
  R. Flamingo 2 goals |   Y. Oukili 2 goals |  M. Kramer 2 goals |
FC Utrecht missing players
RKC Waalwijk missing players
| FC Utrecht | RKC Waalwijk | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 12 | 25 | ||
| 10 | 6 | Won | W | 2 | 7 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Drew | D | 0 | 1 | ||
| 12 | 6 | Lost | L | 10 | 17 | ||
| 32 | 19 | Scored | S | 9 | 23 | ||
| 37 | 20 | Conceded | C | 29 | 54 | ||
| 92% | 92% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 96% | ||
| 76% | 85% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 83% | 76% | ||
| 56% | 54% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 58% | 64% | ||
| 28% | 23% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 42% | 44% | ||
| 12% | 23% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 25% | 24% | ||
| 44% | 46% | BTTS | BTTS | 33% | 40% | ||
| 32% | 38% | Clean Sheets | C S | 8% | 16% | ||
| 32% | 23% | Failed to Score | F T | 58% | 48% | ||
| 5 | 6.5 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 3.5 | 3.1 | ||
| 4.7 | 4.7 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 7.1 | 6 | ||
| 1.5 | 1.2 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.4 | ||
| 3 | 2 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | ||
| 11.8 | 12.9 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 10.2 | 9.3 | ||
| 4.2 | 4.8 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.7 | 3.3 | ||
| 31% | 30% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 20% | 28% | ||
| 13.2 | 12.7 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 16.7 | 14.8 | ||
| 4.8 | 4.7 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 7 | 6.2 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | PSV | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 30 | 30 |
| 2 | AZ | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 20 | 25 |
| 3 | FC Twente | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 14 | 25 |
| 4 | Feyenoord | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 5 | 25 | 23 |
| 5 | Go Ahead Eagles | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 15 |
| 6 | Sparta Rotterdam | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | -1 | 15 |
| 7 | Excelsior | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 17 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | -1 | 13 |
| 8 | NEC | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -1 | 12 |
| 9 | Heracles | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 14 | -8 | 12 |
| 10 | PEC Zwolle | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | -5 | 11 |
| 11 | SC Heerenveen | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 13 | -8 | 10 |
| 12 | Fortuna Sittard | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 | -9 | 10 |
| 13 | RKC Waalwijk | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 9 | -10 | 9 |
| 14 | Almere City | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 19 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -11 | 9 |
| 15 | Vitesse | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -9 | 8 |
| 16 | FC Volendam | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 12 | -8 | 7 |
| 17 | FC Utrecht | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | -12 | 7 |
| 18 | Ajax | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 21 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 14 | -8 | 5 |
