Round 26 of the 2023-24 Eredivisie season sees Fortuna Sittard and PEC Zwolle go head-to-head at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion on Saturday evening.
Both teams had to make do with a share of the spoils in their most recent outings and will be looking to go one better in this weekend's encounter.
Match preview
Fortuna Sittard showed great resilience to come away with a 2-2 draw against Ajax in Sunday's encounter at the Johan Cruyff ArenA.
After going behind to Kenneth Taylor's early opener, Danny Buijs's men turned the game on its head thanks to strikes from Deroy Duarte and Kaj Sierhuis before Brian Brobbey grabbed a late winner.
As a result, the Fortunezen have moved up to 10th in the Eredivisie table, two points shy of Utrecht in the race for the final European spot.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with little to choose between the sides over the last 10 meetings which have yielded four wins apiece and two draws.
Having scored 11 times across their last four matches on home turf, Saturday's hosts will be looking to put on another fine attacking display as they go in search of consecutive wins in front of their fans for the first time since the turn of the year.
Zwolle snapped a dismal run of three defeats in a row with a 1-1 stalemate against FC Volendam at the MAC3PARK Stadion on Sunday afternoon.
Johnny Jansen's men broke the deadlock 10 minutes into the second half through Dave van den Berg but were pegged back by Damon Mirani 20 minutes from time.
With 28 points picked up from 25 league matches this term, De Blauwvingers sit 13th in the standings, albeit just three points off the top half.
Unbeaten in five of their last six away matches, Saturday's visitors will back themselves to secure a positive result on enemy territory once again.
Team News
Zwolle trio Samir Lagsir, Ferdy Druijf and Ryan Thomas are all ruled out of this weekend's contest as they continue to battle with knee injuries.
Zico Buurmeester and Nick Fichtinger also miss out for the away side due to ankle and leg injuries respectively, while Younes Namli is absent through a knock.
Fortuna's Marko Lazetic remains without an appearance since late November due to a knee injury and is joined on the sidelines by Arianit Ferati.
Twenty-five-year-old Kaj Sierhuis has found the back of the net five times in his last three matches, making him one to keep an eye on here.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Verrips; Dijks, Siovas, Guth, Pinto; Cordoba, Duarte, Ferati, Halilovic; Sierhuis, Peterson
PEC Zwolle possible starting lineup:
Hauptmeijer; Garcia, Lam, Kersten, Van Polen; Krastev, El Azzouzi; Reijnders, Velanas, Van der Water; Thy
We say: Fortuna Sittard 2-1 PEC Zwolle
Goals have been a constant feature of this fixture, and we expect the trend to continue here. We can also see the hosts claiming maximum points, albeit by only a narrow margin.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Adepoju Marvellous
