Fortuna Sittard will be out to prolong their unbeaten run in the Eredivisie this weekend when they take on Groningen at Fortuna Sittard Stadion in the first match of Saturday afternoon.
The hosts enter gameweek 10 of the season unbeaten in their last three league games, while the visitors are in search of their first top-flight victory in over two months.
Match preview
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Fortuna Sittard have experienced a mix start to the 2024-25 season, currently on 11 points after nine games, including a record of three wins, two draws and four losses in their first nine games.
All of those defeats came in succession following the August international break, but since then, Fortuna have taken five points from their last three games - the most recent of which ended in a goalless draw away to Willem II last weekend.
That result marked Wil Boessen's side's second clean sheet in a row following a 1-0 victory over AZ, but the new boss will now be looking to find improvement at the other end of the pitch.
So far, Fortuna have the third-lowest goals tally in the top flight with only eight scored this season, five on which came in the first two matches of the new campaign against Go Ahead Eagles and Almere City.
The hosts have split their four home games two wins and two losses, though that record is down on their performance from last term when they only conceded four defefats across the campaign.
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Meanwhile, after bursting out the gate at the start of the season, picking up nine points from their first five top-flight matches, Groningen seem to have hit a wall and are in desperate need of a positive result.
Since their dramatic comeback against Feyenoord in mid-September, the Pride of the North have now suffered four consecutive defeats following their 1-0 loss to Utrecht at home last weekend.
During that time, Dick Lukkien's side lost their last two away games 2-1 to Heerenveen and 3-1 against Ajax, though the one major positive is that they have scored in all four of their league matches on the road this term.
The visitors will now try to get back in the win column, though they have lost their last three league matches against this opponent and conceded three goals in the each of the last two encounters.
Team News
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Following a fairly lengthy injury absence, Alessio Da Cruz returned to Fortuna's bench last weekend and was afforded the final 10 minutes of the match against Willem. The midfielder will be hoping for a slightly bigger role this week, though he is unlikely to be risked from the start.
With Da Cruz back in the team, Boessen now has just two players sidelined, including long term absentee Kaj Sierhuis, who is only expected to return next year, and centre-forward Onur Demir.
Groningen also received an injury boost last week with Tika de Jonge shaking off his injury to rejoin the squad, and he too got some minutes under his belt as a second-half substitute for Rui Mendes.
Additionally, both Marvin Peersman and Brynjolfur Andersen Willumsson returned from their suspensions, with the former slotting straight back into central defence alongside Marco Rente.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Pinto, Adewoye, Guth, Dahlhaus; Fosso, Rosier; Bullaude, Halilovic, Bastien; Aiko
Groningen possible starting lineup:
Jurjus; Stam, Rente, Peersman, Prins; Mendes, Hove, Valente, Schreuders; Postema, Van Bergen
We say: Fortuna Sittard 2-1 Groningen
After a very impressive start to the season, Groningen now find themselves in freefall having lost their last four games on the bounce, and we feel that they will struggle to get anything from this one as well.
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Devesh Jaganath
