Off the back of three consecutive stalemates, NEC welcome Fortuna Sittard to the Goffertstadion on Saturday in matchday six of the 2022-23 Eredivisie campaign.
Meanwhile, the visitors make the journey to Nijmegen aiming to avoid a sixth straight defeat and breathe life into their league season.
Match preview
NEC had to settle for a point once again as they played out a goalless draw against Heerenveen in Sunday's clash at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
Despite playing the final 28 minutes of the second half with a man advantage, Rogier Meijer's men failed to find the breakthrough in what was a tight affair.
The Eniesee have now dropped to ninth place in the league table, albeit only a point adrift of Sparta Rotterdam in the race for the final European place.
Lying in store next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who suffered defeat in two of the three meetings between the teams last time out.
With just one victory in 12 competitive matches in front of their fans since the turn of the year, Saturday's hosts will need to turn their fortunes on home turf around as soon as possible.
Fortuna Sittard saw their wait for a first point of the season go on following an agonising 4-3 defeat against FC Utrecht at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion on Friday evening.
After going behind to Bas Dost's opener, Dominik Vergoossen's men hit back through Rodrigo Guth before Anastasios Douvikas came off the bench to grab a superb hat-trick, rendering strikes from Burak Yilmaz and Tijjani Noslin inconsequential.
One of two teams yet to pick up a single point this term, the Fortunezen remain rooted to the bottom of the Eredivisie standings, four points adrift of safety.
Having narrowly escaped relegation last season, Saturday's visitors go in search of a much-needed three points to help kickstart their league journey.
- L
- W
- D
- D
- D
- W
- L
- W
- D
- D
- D
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
- L
- L
Team News
Twenty-five-year-old Philippe Sandler continues to nurse an ankle injury and will not play any part for NEC Nijmegen in this weekend's match.
The home side will also be without the services of Mathias De Wolf, who remains sidelined with a muscle injury that has seen him not feature since April.
Fortuna Sittard's Burak Yilmaz is aiming to find the back of the net for the fourth game running, making the Turkish forward one to keep an eye on.
Paul Gladon came up trumps for the away side in the last edition of Saturday's fixture and he will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
NEC possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; El Karouani, Kramer, Marquez, Van Rooy; Schone, Proper; Duelund, Tannane, Tavsan; Dimata
Fortuna Sittard possible starting lineup:
Van Osch; Cox, Siovas, Guth, Tirpan; Cordoba, Duarte, Ferati; Gladon, Yilmaz, Seuntjens
We say: NEC 2-1 Fortuna Sittard
Given Fortuna Sittard's recent struggles, NEC will definitely fancy themselves to get the job done in front of their fans. We are tipping the home side to scrape a narrow victory come the end of the 90 minutes here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
