Fortuna Sittard jumped three weeks ago in the Jupiler League, but three defeats in a row have put the title aspirations in the fridge for the time being. Can the team turn the tide to visit Jong AZ?

Young AZ started the season reasonably well but then fell far away. The team of Martin Haar clearly suffered from the success of her own youth training. Talents like Teun Koopmeiners, Guus Til, Pantelis Hatzidiakos and Thomas Ouwejan, who formed the skeleton of the champion of the Second Division last season, are now part of the first team.

In the meantime, Tijani Reijnders and Jeremy Helmer have also been transferred to the first selection, but because they have no prospect of a fixed base, they will still make regular minutes at Jong AZ.

Finally, Her can no longer appeal to players like Fred Friday, Levi Opdam, Levi Garcia and Dabney dos Santos in the second half of the season. The quartet fell outside the boat and therefore worked their matches in the Jupiler League. However, the club management decided that it would be better for their development if they were to come out in the second half of the season for a team that is at a higher level than Jong AZ.

The quality decimated team remained no less than nine games (eight defeats and one draw) without victory, until last Monday FC Oss was defeated. It was 3-1 for Jong AZ and the goals were taken by Ferdy Druijf, Mees Kaandorp and Kai Koreniuk.

During the first victory since November 20, the Frenchman Alec Georgen made his debut. The 19-year-old right back was taken over from Paris Saint-Germain and will be making his minutes for the promises for the time being.

Barely three weeks ago Fortuna Sittard was the proud leader of the Jupiler League, but since then a lot has happened. The team of coach Sunday Oliseh then lost successively FC Dordrecht, FC Emmen and FC Volendam and Oliseh himself came under pressure after he openly criticized his group.

After the defeat against Dordrecht, Oliseh declared urgent need for reinforcements because he had only twelve players at his disposal. It is true that Oliseh appealed to only twelve players for most of the season, but it is not a pleasant signal for the other selection players.

But reinforcements came true: Portuguese defender Micah Pinto came over from Belenenses and the diaphragm was supplemented with Todd Cantwell (ex-Norwich City) and Serbian youth international Lazar Kojic from FK Brodarac. None of the three have managed to secure a place in the spot since Oliseh is holding on to his proven base, despite the lesser results.

This means that there is a place again for Wessel Dammers against Young AZ in the heart of the defense. Dammers had to be absent last week because of a suspension. For the rest, I expect the fixed names on Friday.

PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1.37