Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 6:24 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 18:24

FC Utrecht did good business on Saturday evening in the battle for a ticket for the play-offs for European football. The team of trainer René Hake visited Fortuna Sittard for large parts of the match the parent party and rewarded itself ten minutes before the end with the only goal: 0-1. Adrián Dalmau carried out the verdict on behalf of the Domstedelingen, after the striker was brought within the lines five minutes before his goal. Due to the victory, Utrecht takes a firmer grip on seventh place and increases the gap with Fortuna, which drops to eleventh place, to six points.

Fortuna and trainer Sjors Ultee, who saw his contract extended this week until mid-2023, had to deal with the first setback just before kick-off, when it appeared that George Cox had not come out of the warm-up unscathed and had to be replaced by Lazaros. Rota. Once on the road, Utrecht immediately took control. Othman Boussaid was close to the opening goal early on in the game, when he shot in a promising position and fired on the goal of Yanick van Osch. Martin Angha, however, narrowly threw himself in front of the ball, preventing Hake’s team from taking the lead.

It was thanks to Van Osch that Fortuna did not fall behind in the phase that followed. Mimoun Mahi, Gyrano Kerk and Willem Janssen all tried to force a breakthrough, but found the closing point in their way. Halfway through the first half, the home team got into the game better, without any great opportunities emerging. Just before half time, Utrecht thought it would take the lead. Kerk was sent deeply, approached Van Osch alone and managed to hit the target. However, the attacker did so in an offside position, which meant that referee Björn Kuipers rejected the goal.

In the second half, the game of both teams did not improve much and Utrecht screamed for a penalty after an hour of play, when Roel Janssen pushed through on Hidde ter Avest. Kuipers did not want to and dismissed the protests. Hake then brought Dalmau in for Boussaid and saw that the striker decided the game ten minutes before time. Fortunately, the attacker got the ball in front of his feet and could easily finish the turn: 0-1. Fortuna was still close to the equalizer in the final phase via Tesfaldet Tekie, but the winger’s shot ended wide of Eric Oelschlägel’s goal.