Fortuna Sittard achieved an important victory on Saturday evening in the battle for the play-offs for European football. The Limburgers were too strong for PEC Zwolle at home with a score of 3-1. With the victory, Fortuna climbs from tenth to eighth place in the Eredivisie. PEC remains thirteenth for the time being.

Fortuna drew 2-2 against Ajax last week. Reason enough for trainer Danny Buijs to start against PEC with the same eleven names as last week.

The Zwolle team also started the match with the same eleven names as last week, when they drew 1-1 at home against FC Volendam. Trendsetter Davy van den Berg, who beautifully used a free kick against the last goal, was also back in the starting line-up.

Remarkable situation at Fortuna Sittard – PEC Zwolle: ??? Mitchell Dijks hits the ball with his hand, VAR goes to check ????? PEC does not get a penalty, Fortuna continues with a corner ?? Justin Lonwijk scores straight from the corner: 2-0#forpec pic.twitter.com/ET5W6eGAIB

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After a less than entertaining opening phase, the home team got the first chance after half an hour of play. Lonwijk got the ball in a promising position, but saw his effort go wide via a defender after he failed to properly control the ball.

After that, Kaj Sierhuis also threatened a number of times. First he saw an effort in front of the goal line being cleared twice by Anselmo García Mac Nulty, a little later goalkeeper Jasper Schendelaar made the save. Yet Fortuna went into halftime with a lead: Sierhuis headed in a cross from Mitchell Dijks. The sixth goal in his last four Eredivisie matches for the striker.

After an hour of play, Fortuna was awarded a corner kick. However, they had to wait a while, because not much earlier Dijks had possibly made hands in his own penalty area. The VAR took the time to review the moment carefully, and PEC continued to hope for a penalty.

Ultimately it was decided not to give the penalty, so the game continued and Fortuna was allowed to take the corner. And it was shot in by Justin Lonwijk: 2-0. While PEC was angry about the penalty they did not receive, Fortuna celebrated.

In the final phase, Fortuna finally secured the victory through substitute Alessio da Cruz, who managed to shoot the ball home from a difficult angle: 3-0. The 3-1 that Lennart Thy then made from the turn was only a hit for the statistics.

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