Fortuna Sittard did good business in its own stadium on Sunday afternoon by beating Go Ahead Eagles 1-0. A win was needed as the competition also took three points in the battle against relegation. Zian Flemming scored the only goal before halftime.
PEC Zwolle won at RKC (0-2) and Willem II, the team of coach Kevin Hofland, won 1-0 against Vitesse in Tilburg. Sparta already lost 2-0 to FC Twente on Friday evening and is now last in the Eredivisie. Fortuna passes RKC in the ranking and rises to 14th place.
Busy
The pressure for Sjors Ultee’s team was great, partly because of those results. The coach chose the same eleven as last week against Sparta (3-0). Striker Paul Gladon was then the man-of-the-match with two goals. He also scored against Go Ahead, but his early goal was disallowed for offside. Fortuna still had difficulty in the initial phase to secure Eagles with combination football and often used the long ball. That quickly changed.
Opening goal
Tijjani Noslin was close to the opening goal but his effort went wide. In the 22nd minute it was hit. Zian Flemming came up on the right and fired 16 yards from the edge. His ball was touched by Eagles player Bas Kuipers and sailed over goalkeeper Noppert into the goal, 1-0.
Fortuna then had a few good opportunities. A predicament in front of the Deventer goal unfolded just before half an hour of play, but Deroy Duarte’s shot was blocked by Rommens. Go Ahead didn’t play an offensive role in the remainder of the first half, so both teams went into halftime with that 1-0 score.
Tea
Paul Gladon had Fortuna’s first chance after tea, but his bet went wide. Tijjani Noslin then missed another opportunity. After an hour of playing, all sorts of things happened. First, a shot by Mats Seuntjens hit the post. Next, Dimitrios Siovas injured himself and had to be replaced by Roel Janssen. Then another goal for Fortuna, but this one was also disallowed. Attempts by Tekie and Tirpan were unsuccessful. Fortuna failed to reach a safe(er) margin.
Additional Defender
Although the Deventer team was able to participate in the battle for the places that entitle to European football with a good result, the team was not threatening. Nevertheless, Fortuna trainer Ultee exchanged attacker Noslin for defender Andreas Samaris. The Greek veteran came to strengthen the defense as an extra defender.
A ‘final offensive’ by Eagles followed. Defender Nigel Lonwijk replaced attacker Gladon. Yanick van Osch took another good shot and Fortuna’s narrow but deserved victory was not endangered in the six minutes of extra time.