Fortuna Sittard will also play in the Eredivisie next season. The Sittard club beat NEC in Nijmegen and that was enough for enforcement. Zian Flemming became the match winner with his goal in the 13th minute.
Fortuna trainer Sjors Ultee had few problems in terms of line-up compared to last Wednesday’s match against Vitesse. The strongholds Mats Seuntjens, Zian Flemming and Deroy Duarte returned from their suspension against NEC. Surprisingly, the starting position for Samy Baghdadi was in the front right. He played for Tijjani Noslin. Arianit Ferati, Roel Janssen and Andreas Samaris were unable to play.
13th minute
Many scenarios were possible, but the most desirable was that Fortuna Sittard would ‘just’ win. Especially when competitor Willem II took the lead early on. Fortuna had the first opportunity through Baghdadi. His attempt was caught by goalkeeper Branderhorst. Great relief and joy followed in the 13th minute. A nice attack from the left with preparatory work by Samy Baghdadi was extended with a heel by Paul Gladon, after which Zian Flemming put the lead on the scoreboard with a placed shot: 0-1.
Game level not high
NEC then took the initiative and the most danger came from Jonathan Okita. Goalkeeper Yanick van Osch was not surprised. The Nijmegen team had more possession, five corner kicks (against zero for Fortuna) but no goal yet. The level of the game was not very high, the tension meanwhile high. Despite the fact that the home team was unable to enforce great opportunities, it was clear that Fortuna would be able to keep this up for a long time with difficulty.
Tension
Lisandro Semedo replaced Samy Baghdadi at the start of the second half and Fortuna immediately got a free kick in a fine position. Mats Seuntjens couldn’t get the ball over the wall this time and so it remained with that narrow lead. The competitors Sparta and Willem II were also still ahead, Heracles was the child of the bill in this situation. Zian Flemming got the next chance from Sittard. The Fortunees went for the goal alone but pushed the ball wide. On the other hand, the pressure on Van Osch’s goal increased.
nerve-wracking
After a number of corner kicks, Okita had the biggest chance for Nijmegen until then in the match. He shot over just before goal. NEC had made three substitutions around the hour and the team played opportunistically with those substitutes. Fortuna was pushed back and almost stopped attacking. Semedo had to pull the emergency brake at the cost of a yellow card. Chances for Javier Vet, Lasse Schöne and Ibrahim Cissoko were without consequences. Benschop and Lonwijk had come into the Sittard team and with George Cox’s substitution for Mickaël Tirpan ten minutes before the end, Fortuna seemed to counter the Nijmegen rush.
Enforcement
The 12,000 spectators fired their team with an ‘all-or-nothing’, before the full section it continued to shiver. Fortuna escaped in the four minutes of extra time. Van Osch plucked a ball from the corner of Elayis Tavsan, Flemming saved with a header on the line, Nigel Lonwijk also thwarted a good Nijmegen opportunity. Semedo could have thrown the game into the end of extra time (90+4) but the right winger was unable to take advantage in a one-on-one situation. That did not matter, Fortuna dragged the narrow victory out of the fire and maintains itself in the Eredivisie.
Relegation
With PEC Zwolle, Kevin Hofland’s Willem II also relegates directly. Heracles has been sentenced to play the playoffs. The opponent is Excelsior, which Roda JC eliminated in the play-offs on Saturday evening.