Preview:Fortuna Sittard vs. Sparta Rotterdam - prediction, team news, lineups

Fortuna Sittard will be looking to make it four victories in five matches when they welcome Sparta Rotterdam to the Fortuna Sittard Stadion on Saturday.

On the other hand, the away side make the journey to Sittard this weekend aiming to end a winless run of four matches across all competitions.

Match preview

Fortuna Sittard secured safe passage into the last 16 of the KNVB-Beker courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Eindhoven FC at the Jans Louwers Stadion on December 19.

Danny Buijs's men opened the scoring through Tijjani Noslin right on the half-hour mark, after which Kaj Sierhuis sealed the deal in the early exchanges of the second half.

Prior to that, the Fortunezen fell to a 4-1 defeat against NEC Nijmegen at Goffertstadion and have dropped down to 10th place in the Eredivisie table as a result.

Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams over the last five meetings, which have yielded two wins apiece and one draw.

Having won each of their last three games on home turf by a combined score of 8-2, Saturday's hosts will be confident of securing another three points in front of their fans.

Sparta Rotterdam were on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat against Belgian side Oud-Heverlee Leuven at the Pinatar Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Jeroen Rijsdijk's men took an early second-half lead through Tobias Lauritsen before goals from Konan Ndri and Youssef Maziz turned the game on its head.

With 22 points picked up from 16 points this term, De Kasteelheren sit seventh in the league standings, three points clear of the teams outside the last European place.

Off the back of consecutive defeats on the road leading up to Saturday's contest, the visitors will be keen to turn their away fortunes around.

Team News

Fortuna's Deroy Duarte will not play any part in this one as he is currently on duty with Cape Verde ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.

The home side will also be without the services of Tijjani Noslin, who is serving a suspension for his red card against NEC in mid-December.

Twenty-nine-year-old Said Bakari is ineligible to feature here after receiving his marching orders in Sparta Rotterdam's last league encounter.

Pelle Clement and Koki Saito also miss out for the away side through knee and thigh injuries respectively, although the former is closing in on a return to action.

Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:

Pandur; Voet, Guth, Fofana, Pinto; Ferati, Rosier; Cordoba, Halilovic, Ozyakup; Sierhuis

Sparta Rotterdam possible starting lineup:

Olij; Van der Kust, Velthuis, Meissen, Rosanas; Kitolano, De Guzman; Warmerdam, Verschueren, Neghli; Lauritsen

We say: Fortuna Sittard 2-1 Sparta Rotterdam

Fortuna are on a better run of results heading into this one and coupled with the added advantage of playing on home turf, we are tipping them to come out on top at the sound of the final whistle.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.