Football-loving Nijmegen has only just recovered from the great victory over leader (and undefeated until last weekend) PSV, but the next match is already around the corner for NEC. Tonight at 9 p.m., Rogier Meijer’s team will try to get the next three points in an away match against Fortuna Sittard.
NEC and Fortuna Sittard each experienced a very different Saturday last weekend. NEC achieved something that no other team had managed to do this season – beating PSV – while Fortuna Sittard suffered a major defeat at Sparta (4-0 for the Rotterdam team). And while the team of coach Danny Buijs was actually working on an excellent series. In the four matches before last weekend, the Limburgers managed to win three times: against PEC Zwolle, Excelsior and RKC Waalwijk. The fourth match in the series was a 2-2 draw at Ajax, certainly not an everyday occurrence.
The big man in those four games was striker Kaj Sierhuis. The attack leader of the Fortunes managed to score no fewer than six times in the aforementioned four-part, bringing his total number to eleven goals. In the persons of Rodrigo Guth and Ragnar Oratmangoen we also find two former NEC players in the selection of the Limburgers.
NEC won on Saturday despite the absence of some PSV basic players and thus set the Goffert on fire. Another fantastic chapter in the beautiful book that can be written about this season of the people of Nijmegen. This ensured that the team is still in sixth place in the rankings with 42 points collected. However, Lasse Schöne and Bart van Rooij were injured: they will miss the meeting with the Limburgers.
We find Fortuna Sittard four places lower, eight points away from NEC. A ranking that will have been signed for in advance in Sittard, but now that the end of the season is approaching, they will undoubtedly want to give a little extra gas for a nice dessert in the form of play-offs at the end of the day.
Earlier this season, NEC and Fortuna played a spectacular mutual match in Nijmegen. Both teams received a red card and a total of five goals were scored, with the score strongly in favor of NEC: 4-1. The Nijmegen goals were scored by Magnus Mattsson (2x), Koki Ogawa and Sontje Hansen. Ogawa and Hansen did not play against PSV, but will be available again for Rogier Meijer tonight.
With a win in Sittard, NEC will at least pass Ajax in the rankings for two days. With a win, Fortuna can in turn jump to place 8, a position that indeed entitles them to participate in the play-offs. It does depend on what happens on the other fields.
Tonight’s match starts at 9 p.m. and is led by referee Richard Martens. NEC is also supported again in Limburg by a full branch. Those who are unable to do so can watch the match in its entirety on ESPN’s open channel.
By Teun van Thiel