Fortuna Sittard will be in for a stern test this Sunday when they host free-scoring PSV Eindhoven at Fortuna Sittard Stadion in gameweek six of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season.
Both sides enter this match off the back of defeats, with the hosts suffering a heavy 5-0 loss to Ajax, while the visitors went down to Juventus in the opening round of the Champions League.
Match preview
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After a promising start to the season with back-to-back victories over Go Ahead Eagles and Almere City in their first two games, results have dried up for Fortuna Sittard who will now be hoping to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.
Against Ajax last time out, Fortuna were already two goals down before Rodrigo Guth was sent for an early shower, and de Godenzonen made the most of their man advantage, adding another three to their tally in the second half.
With that, Danny Buijs's side have now gone just shy of 300 minutes without scoring a league goal since Josip Mitrovic's strike against De Zwarte Schapen over a month ago, which was also their last goal on their home patch.
In addition, the hosts also conceded nine goals in total over the last three gameweeks, which was the second-most in the division during that period behind Heerenveen.
At Fortuna Sittard Stadion, Fortunezen have won one and lost one this season, but their record on home soil has been fairly poor in recent times, with that victory being the only one they have managed here in their last six league games dating back to the start of April.
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Last season, PSV only dropped a total of 13 points by way of four draws and a single defeat, and Fortuna were one of the few sides that could boast of coming away from a match with the league champions with a 1-1 draw to show for their efforts - albeit that the league title had already been secured by the time these two played out that fixture on the penultimate day of the campaign.
Still, that result extended the Red and Whites' unbeaten record against this opponent to 11 games, including nine wins and two draws dating back to August 2018, a period during which they outscored Fortuna 34-8.
The Farmers have launched out the gate this season - currently the only team with a perfect five wins from five in the top flight - and a draw or better here will take them back to the top of the standings after being overtaken by AZ Alkmaar who played on Friday night.
This weekend's match will also be an opportunity for Peter Bosz's side to put their midweek loss to Juventus behind them, and start building up momentum for what should be another testing match against Sporting Lisbon in week two of the Champions League on October 1.
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Team News
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Buijs could have five players unavailable this weekend, starting with Rodrigo Guth, who will serve the first match of his ban for the red he was shown in last week's defeat to Ajax.
Alessio da Cruz and Kaj Sierhuis are likely to miss the remainder of the year having undergone surgery on a cruciate ligament and foot respectively, while Onur Demir and Mitchell Dijks are flagged as injury doubts.
After scoring four goals in the first four league games of the season, Hirving Lozano picked up a muscle strain and is now expected to remain sidelined until the start of next month.
Sergino Dest has been out of action with a cruciate ligament tear since July and will only return next year, while defensive duo Fredrik Oppegard and Armando Obispo are both still recovering from knee injuries.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Pinto, Ottele, Adewoye, Grujcic; Bastien, Fosso, Rosier; Peterson, Bullaude, Halilovic
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Benitez; Ledezma, Flamingo, Boscagli, Dams; Til, Schouten, Veerman; Bakayoko, De Jong, Tilman
We say: Fortuna Sittard 0-3 PSV Eindhoven
PSV experienced a rare outing where they were outplayed and outscored in midweek and will want to rebound from that result this weekend. Given Fortuna's recent record, we feel the Farmers will cruise to a comfortable victory in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
