Fortuna Sittard and AZ Alkmaar draw the curtain on round eight of the 2024-25 Eredivisie season with a meeting at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion on Sunday evening.
Neither team managed to pick up three points from their last outings as the home side played out a share of the spoils, while their visitors suffered a first defeat this term.
Match preview
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After recording six wins and a draw from their opening seven games of the campaign across all competitions, AZ Alkmaar head into their meeting against Fortuna in need of a lift.
Maarten Martens's men were beaten in consecutive matches four days apart on the domestic and continental fronts, with FC Utrecht and Athletic Bilbao both coming away with maximum points.
Despite taking the lead against Utrecht through in-form Troy Parrott, De Kaasboeren were beaten 2-1 at the AFAS Stadion on Sunday, four days before losing 2-0 to Bilbao in their second Europa League group-stage involvement.
AZ Alkmaar were far from their best in the aforementioned two defeats and will be keen to get themselves back on track with a dominant display as they aim to head into the international break on a winning note.
Awaiting Sunday's visitors after the upcoming hiatus is a crunch run of matches which sees them face off against PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham Hotspur and Feyenoord in the space of two weeks.
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Fortuna Sittard snapped a run of four straight Eredivisie losses with a 1-1 stalemate against Sparta Rotterdam at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel on Saturday evening.
Despite seeing his side go behind for the fifth game running, Danny Buijs would have been pleased by their reaction as they managed to avoid defeat this time around courtesy of Ezequiel Bullaude's strike.
The Fortunezen could not have asked for a better start to the season having won their first two matches by a combined score of 5-0 to sit fifth, but a dry patch resulting in one point from the next 15 available has seen them drop to 14th.
Deficiencies at both ends of the pitch have contributed significantly to Fortuna's torrid form over the last five gameweeks which have yielded just two goals—11 fewer than they have let in at the other end.
Having been beaten in all but one of their last 15 meetings against AZ, the home side have it all to do this weekend in their quest to get back to winning ways.
Team News
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Kristoffer Peterson is out of contention for Fortuna Sittard once again due to a muscle problem, while Alessio Da Cruz misses out with a foot injury.
Kaj Sierhuis is also unfit to feature for the hosts through a long-term knee problem which the Dutchman suffered towards the back end of last season.
Sam Westerveld and Wouter Goes are guaranteed absentees for AZ Alkmaar here, while Ibrahim Sadiq is on course to miss game number three on the bounce.
Twenty-six-year-old Mees de Wit is back on the bench for the away side after a fairly lengthy spell on the sidelines with a foot injury.
Troy Parrott took his tally of league goals for the campaign to five in seven outings after netting against Utrecht, and the forward is one to keep an eye on.
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Branderhorst; Dahlhaus, Adewoye, Guth, Pinto; Rosier, Fosso, Bastien; Bullaude, Aiko, Halilovic
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Owusu-Oduro; Maikuma, Penetra, Martins Indi, Wolfe; Koopmeiners, Clasie; Addai, Mijnans, Van Bommel; Parrott
We say: Fortuna Sittard 1-3 AZ Alkmaar
AZ Alkmaar have hit a bump in the road of late, but this weekend's game offers them a perfect chance at regaining some confidence.
We fully expect the visitors to come away with maximum points when all is said and done here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
