FC Groningen booked a big win against Fortuna Sittard on Saturday evening. After a journey of 319 kilometers, Danny Buijs’s team won 1-4, putting Groningen in twelfth place overnight. The visitors fell behind halfway through the first half, but straightened their backs with four hits. In the second half, at a 1-3 score, Fortuna ended up with ten men due to a red card from Roel Janssen. Fortuna remains in seventeenth place after the defeat.
Not much happened in the first twenty minutes, but then both teams scored in quick succession. Halfway through the first half, goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburgh of Groningen was transfixed when Mats Seuntjens fired a cannonball from a great distance. Leeuwenburgh seemed to count on the ball going wide, but Seuntjens searched for the top left corner with great precision: 1-0. Five minutes later, however, Groningen came alongside. After a sharp, turning cross from Wessel Dammers, Cyril Ngonge hit the far post from close range.
Wow! What a rocket from Mats Seuntjens ??#FORGRO pic.twitter.com/kYIEh4weHr
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) Nov 27, 2021
The striker thus made a nice comeback after he was on the bench against Go Ahead Eagles (0-1 win) last week, because trainer Buijs was not satisfied with his attitude. He called Ngonge “a very difficult guy to work with.” The fact that the Belgian was allowed to participate in Sittard was also due to the absence of Tomas Suslov (suspended) and Michael de Leeuw (ill). Three minutes before the break, Groningen took the lead in a curious way and again Ngonge played a leading role.
The attacker wanted to cross from the right wing, but the ball was violently deflected by George Cox. He passed his own goalkeeper, who was completely on the wrong foot. Five minutes after the break, Groningen even expanded the margin. Goalkeeper Yanick van Osch couldn’t control the ball after a long shot by Laros Duarte, which allowed Daleho Irandust from close range for his first goal in the Eredivisie.
After an hour, referee Jeroen Manschot was called to the side by video referee Sander van der Eijk to take a closer look at Janssen’s foul on Mo El Hankouri. Manschot had first awarded yellow, but saw on the images that Janssen planted his studs on his opponent’s ankle, so he chose red. Groningen exploited the numerical superiority thanks to Jörgen Strand Larsen, who appeared one-on-one with goalkeeper Van Osch after a tight pass from Irandust. Strand Larsen was therefore accurate three competition matches in a row. In the final phase, there were still great opportunities for the 2-4 for Zian Flemming, who, however, encountered Leeuwenburgh and hit the bar.