Having lost seven of their last eight matches, Fortuna Sittard play host to FC Utrecht in round 17 of the 2021-22 Eredivisie season on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the away side head into the game looking to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat away from home.
Match preview
Utrecht were knocked out of the KNVB-Beker on Tuesday following a 3-2 defeat to Breda at the Rat Verlegh Stadion.
Goals from Mike van der Hoorn and Anastasios Douvikas either side of a Thom Haye brace saw the game level going into its final knockings before a late strike from Vieri Kotzebue decided the tie.
The Cupfighters played out a goalless draw versus Go Ahead Eagles in their last league outing and have now dropped to sixth place in the Eredivisie table.
Next up is a clash versus an opposing side who have won just two of the last 12 meetings between the teams since the turn of the millennium.
Having picked up only seven from a possible 24 points on the road, Saturday's visitors will need to get going on their travels as they aim to secure continental qualification.
Like Utrecht, Fortuna have also been dumped out of the Dutch cup courtesy of a 2-0 loss to PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday.
Ritsu Doan opened the scoring just shy of the half-hour mark before grabbing his second of the game two minutes past the hour mark.
However, Sjors Ultee's men put an end to a six-game losing streak in the league last time out when they beat Zwolle 1-0 at the Mac3Park Stadion.
Currently with the worst defensive record in the entire division, Saturday's hosts have some tightening up to do at the back if they are to stay clear of relegation danger.
- W
- L
- L
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- L
Team News
Adrian Dalmau grabbed the winner in this fixture last season and the 27-year-old will be looking to come up clutch for the away side once again.
The defensive trio of Christopher Mamengi, Reda Akmum and Tommy St Jago are all ruled out through knee injuries, while Sylian Mokono remains without an appearance since August.
Defender Willem Janssen is currently walking a suspension tightrope as he is one yellow card away from five for the season which would result in a one-game ban.
Fortuna's Lisandro Semedo made his comeback from an ankle injury versus PSV and the 25-year-old could be handed a starting spot this weekend.
Bassala Sambou and Samy Baghdadi led the line in the aforementioned game but we expect them to return to the bench in favour of Zian Flemming and Mats Seuntjens.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Van Osch; Cox, Tirpan, Samaris, Lonwijk, Janssen; Tekie, Duarte, Rienstra; Seuntjens, Flemming
FC Utrecht possible starting lineup:
Paes; Avest, Benamar, Janssen, Zagre; Van Overmeem, Timber; Gustafson, Ramselaar, Boussaid; Douvikas
We say: Fortuna Sittard 1-2 FC Utrecht
The sides come into the game on a poor of run of results and three points here would do both teams a world of good. We fancy the visitors to come out on top by the skin of their teeth at the end of the 90 minutes.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a FC Utrecht win with a probability of 55.26%. A draw had a probability of 22.7% and a win for Fortuna Sittard had a probability of 22.01%.
The most likely scoreline for a FC Utrecht win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.92%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.86%) and 0-2 (9.14%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.7%), while for a Fortuna Sittard win it was 1-0 (5.81%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.3% likelihood.
