Line-up KVC Westerlo: S. Bolat, B. Reynolds (46′ E. Jordanov), R. Neustaedter, R. Tagir, M. De Cuyper, M. Fixelles (88′ T. Van den Keybus), N. Madsen, N. Chadli (81′ I. Vetokele), H. Akbunar (67′ P. Perdichizzi), D. Nene (67′ L. Van Eenoo), L. Foster

Line-up Cercle Brugge: R. Majecki, B. Popovic, J. Daland, S. Miangue, T. Somers, L. Lopes, C. Vanhoutte, D. Velkovski, D. Hotic, A. Ueda, A. S. K. Denkey

First half

Right from our team’s first attack, the referee pointed to the spot. Akbunar received a push in the back at a Chadli cross, after a brief VAR intervention the ball went to the spot. Chadli put himself behind the ball and shot it into the top left corner, goalkeeper Majecki still touched the ball but came up short to keep it out of the goal, 0-1 after 6 minutes of football.

Around the 20th minute, referee Wesli De Cremer had to hand out two yellow cards to our Kemphans at short notice. First to Fixelles for a tackle that came too late, then Tagir was also shown a yellow after a firm tackle.

Cercle started applying more and more pressure and going into the duels more fiercely. This saw them create their first chance on goal of the match but Bolat put his fists between them well. No real danger so far.

After a first half with few chances but plenty of yellow cards, including Halil Akbunar getting another yellow for kicking the ball into the stands, our Kemphans went into the dressing rooms with a 0-1 lead.

Second half

Bryan Reynolds had to stay in the dressing room after the injury he sustained in the first half. Edisson Jordanov came along from the tunnel to replace him at the right-back position.

A little after half-time, we saw beautiful combination football between the Westel players. De Cuyper still tried to increase the lead with a distance shot but his shot ended too centrally on goal which allowed goalkeeper Majecki to have no problems keeping the ball out of his nets. We also saw Cercle continue to bring the high pressure we saw in the last fifteen minutes of the first half which made our team watch out.

The home team clearly came out of the dressing rooms as the better team. For our team, we saw too many mistakes happening in the game. Bolat prevented the equaliser in minute 69 after Gboho received the ball from the right flank and managed to take a shot. With an excellent save, our goalkeeper kept the ball out of the goal.

After a rather difficult game, we could happily get back on the bus and add three points to the standings.

Goals

6′ N. Chadli (0-1)