Fortuna Sittard took his first point in the Eredivisie on Saturday visiting NEC. Under the watchful eye of new trainer Julio Velázquez, who was in the stands in De Goffert, the Limburgers drew 1-1. The score was opened beautifully by the debuting Oguzhan Özyakup, after which Pedro Marques equalized just before time. Due to the draw, NEC is currently eighth in the Eredivisie, while Fortuna remains at the bottom.
With the home team, Oussama Tannane started again in the base, after he was still missing last weekend against sc Heerenveen (0-0) due to minor complaints. Defender Joris Kramer was not there against Fortuna, because he was injured in training last week. Due to Kramer’s absence, Calvin Verdonk started in the center of the defense and Souffian El Karouani started as left back. Tannane started centrally in midfield, leaving Mikkel Duelund left winger. At Fortuna, Mickaël Tirpan left for Kasimpasa last week. Ivo Pinto therefore played in his place against NEC. Furthermore, Iñigo Córdoba and Arianit Ferati were in midfield. That was at the expense of Dogan Erdogan and Mats Seuntjens, who both started on the bench.
Oguzhan Özyakup brightens up his Fortuna debut with a fantastic goal??#necfor pic.twitter.com/4zxlIAaD3T
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) September 10, 2022
NEC started the game threateningly. Within three minutes Duelund was close to 1-0 with a header, but Fortuna goalie Ivor Pandur made the save. More than twenty minutes later there was another chance for the Nijmegen team, but this time Landry Dimata headed the ball straight at Pandur. NEC was also dangerous via Bart van Rooij and Elayis Tavsan, but both times a defender stood in the way. The best chance for Fortuna was after more than half an hour of play for Burak Yilmaz, who wore the captain’s armband due to the absence of Seuntjes. However, the Turk saw his free kick turned beautifully by Jasper Cillessen. As a result, both teams went into halftime without goals.
In the second half, nothing special happened for a long time. After more than an hour, first Lasse Schöne and later Iván Márquez were close to the opening goal, but both players did not get the ball into the goal. Out of nowhere Fortuna then took the lead in a brilliant way: Özyakup, who had just come in, decided to take a swing and saw the ball fly beautifully into the intersection: 0-1. In the final phase, NEC was threatening a few times, especially via Tannane and Schöne, but the ball did not seem to want to go in. Just before time, Fortuna substitute Erdogan received his second yellow card, which meant that his team had to finish the game with ten men. From a corner, NEC took advantage of the surplus via Marques, who scored his first competition goal for the Nijmegen team and still secured a point.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajax | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 15 |
| 2 | Feyenoord | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 13 |
| 3 | AZ | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| 4 | PSV | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 12 |
| 5 | FC Twente | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 12 |
| 6 | sc Heerenveen | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 9 |
| 7 | Sparta Rotterdam | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 8 | NEC | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 9 | RKC Waalwijk | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 10 | Excelsior | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | -8 | 6 |
| 11 | FC Utrecht | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 5 |
| 12 | Fc Groningen | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -5 | 5 |
| 13 | SC Cambuur | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -4 | 4 |
| 14 | Vitesse | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -8 | 4 |
| 15 | FC Emmen | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -9 | 4 |
| 16 | FC Volendam | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -13 | 4 |
| 17 | Go Ahead Eagles | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | -7 | 3 |
| 18 | Fortuna Sittard | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | -9 | 1 |