Still in search of their first victory of the 2022-23 Eredivisie campaign, Fortuna Sittard and SBV Excelsior face off at the Fortuna-Sittard Stadion on Saturday.
On the other hand, the away side go in search of consecutive wins having ended a three-game losing streak by coming away with all three points last time out.
Match preview
Fortuna Sittard recorded their first point of the season following a 1-1 stalemate against NEC Nijmegen at Stadion de Goffert on Saturday.
Sjors Ultee's men opened the scoring through Oguzhan Ozyakup in the 71st minute before they were pegged back in second-half stoppage time by Pedro Marques.
Consequently, the Fortunezen remain rock-bottom in the league standings after the first six match days but have now moved within three points of safety.
Lying in store next is the task of going up against an opposing outfit with little to choose between the teams as the last eight encounters have yielded three wins apiece and two draws.
Still without a victory on home turf in their most recent eight matches dating back to April, Saturday's hosts will be eager to get the job done in front of their fans this weekend, which could prove to be a turning point.
SBV Excelsior secured a first win in four outings by narrowly defeating FC Emmen 2-1 at the Van Donge & De Roo Stadion on Saturday evening.
Marinus Dijkhuizen's men fell behind on the stroke of half time to Ole Romeny's strike before hitting back through Nathan Tjoe and Serano Seymor.
The Kralingers have now moved up to seventh place in the Eredivisie table in what has been a decent start to life back among the elite of Dutch football.
Having let in nine goals in their last two away matches, Saturday's visitors will be wary of being on the receiving end of another thrashing on the road.
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Team News
Fortuna Sittard's Tijjani Noslin was forced off with a first-half versus NEC Nijmegen, and the 23-year-old is an injury doubt for Saturday.
Meanwhile, Dogan Erdogan is a guaranteed absentee for the home side after he received his marching orders for two bookable offences in the aforementioned game.
Nikolas Agrafiotis remains unavailable for Excelsior due to a muscle injury which has seen him miss each of the last 10 matches on the bounce.
Midfielder Seran Seymor will be pushing for a place in the starting lineup for this one having come off the bench to good effect last time out.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Pandur; Cox, Pinto, Siovas, Guth, Vita; Ferati, Duarte, Cordoba; Gladon, Yilmaz
SBV Excelsior possible starting lineup:
Van Gassel; Horemans, Nieuwpoort, El Yaakoubi, Tjoe; Fein, Ayoub, Goudmijn; Baas, Van Duinen, Driouech
We say: Fortuna Sittard 1-1 SBV Excelsior
Given their dismal start to the new campaign, the onus is more on Fortuna Sittard to seize the initiative and take charge of proceedings. That said, we are backing a share of the spoils here with honours even at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
