Hans Vanaken gives Club Brugge three golden points at the last minute in a (too) mediocre top match, third defeat in a row for Antwerp

Hans Vanaken gives Club Brugge three golden points at the last minute in a (too) mediocre top match, third defeat in a row for Antwerp

Club Brugge and Antwerp seemed to divide the points in a far too mediocre match. In the first half there was a lot of crying, in the case of Marc Van Bommel even literally. Ferran Jutgla provided relief just before half time with a beautiful goal and in a better second half, substitute George Ilenikhena was on the field for barely half a minute and scored. It seemed to be a more than successful substitution for Antwerp, but Thiago and especially Hans Vanaken decided differently: 2-1. These are three welcome and golden points for Club, Antwerp can only dream of them for the time being.

It’s better not to try: getting into the heads of trainers. Those who followed Club Brugge in recent weeks and followed the match in Lugano live or on their device agreed: prodigal son Eder Balanta finally provided the balance in the midfield that Club so loved in the desolate and soaking wet Zurich stadium. was looking for. And yet Ronny Deila now suddenly reintroduced the young Raphael Onyedika. Understand who can. The choice of Ferran Jutgla up front instead of Thiago was understandable. The Brazilian is certainly not a bad buy, but more is expected from a striker at Club Brugg. Was Deila making things difficult for herself? An open question, the fact is that Marc Van Bommel approached it differently. The Dutchman was again exposed in the Champions League on Wednesday, this time against European sub-team Porto, but he did put his trust in the same eleven. So no Owen Wijndal, but Ritchie De Laet on the right and the versatile Jelle Bataille opposite on the left and in the zone of Skov Olsen, the all or nothing man at blue-black.

Van Bommel puts on his cap

“Playing at Club Brugge is always difficult,” Marc Van Bommel also knows after almost a year and a half in Belgium. Club-Antwerp is and remains unique and they did their best at Club with a special DJ set during the warm-up and another nice tifo. Much more atmosphere than last Thursday in Zurich, but that annoying rain was present again. So much so that Marc Van Bommel took out his raincoat and even a cap. Glen De Boeck has barely returned when he is already being followed with his now legendary raincoat. But soon a sun peeked through that cloud cover, a fair in hell they say in the vernacular, but unfortunately not here on the field. Not much happened in the first twenty minutes. After a mistake by Coulibaly, Skov Olsen kicked the free kick hopelessly into the wall and after another, now short free kick, Nielsen aimed hopelessly high. Yusuf was also booked early on for his mistake, prior to this phase.

Foto: Isosport

Beautiful goal from Jutgla

And Antwerp? The Great Old didn’t know exactly where it wanted to go. The visitors had the most ball possession, but they didn’t actually do much more than tap around thirty meters in front of Butez’s goal. This was much to the annoyance of the Bruges fans who strongly expressed their dissatisfaction. No, this was unworthy of a top match, also because Club Brugge was unable to outplay Antwerp. When Skov Olsen managed to do that, good old Ritchie took out the cross with his head. From the subsequent corner Jutgla finally showed himself, but Butez boxed the ball far enough away. Would it? The home crowd already got behind it, but it didn’t help much. On the contrary, Antwerp looked for and found space and Nielsen and Mechele were left with a yellow card. Club had a bad customer in Balikwisha, who fired just over. The finish on both sides could also be better.

Then let’s hope for improvement in the second half. We had just written these words down when the stadium suddenly exploded. Perhaps not a world goal, but still an undeniable beauty by Ferran Jutgla. On a throw-in from Buchanan, he performed some magic tricks with his Spanish feet, juggled the ball a few times and rewarded Butez with his only ninth goal this season. Certainly no seventh clean sheet for the Frenchman this season, but with this in mind we went into halftime with some delay.

No cake, but sun, chances and a disallowed goal

The goal had made up for a lot, but not everything. A good colleague was disappointed when it came to this winner and, as a good man, he assumed that a piece of cake would provide some relief, but even that was not an option.

Hans Vanaken gives Club Brugge three golden points at the last minute in a (too) mediocre top match, third defeat in a row for Antwerp

Foto: Isosport

Fortunately, the sun shone brightly after the break and Club played towards Spionkop. Butez immediately had to work on an attempt by Zinckernagel and Coulibaly had to avoid worse on an attempt by Skov Olsen. Just like in Zurich, Mignolet also only had to return to work in the second half. For example, he took a sharp cross from Muja away from his target area. Antwerp even scored, Jelle Bataille tapped in Ekkelenkamp’s assist against the team where he played for two years with the U13 and 1I4 youth, but was offside.

Successful Antwerp substitutions, but Vanaken is the savior

So it remained 1-0 and Deila made a substitution at the front and brought Jutgla and Zinckernagel to the side for Thiago and Nusa. The young Norwegian in particular could count on an enthusiastic ovation upon his arrival, but the Club fans were clearly less pleased with the appearance of Thiago. Van Bommel anticipated with Kobe Corbanie for Bataille.

And those invaders immediately did what they came for. Some anyway. Thiago was clearly not awake yet, Nusa was but was not followed. However, the golden change took place in Antwerp. George Ilenikhena. Kudos to Van Bommel because his one substitute Corbanie put Bjorn Meijer to the wind and yes, the sturdy George Ilenikhena extended the low cross into the goal. He needed less than half a minute to open up the match again.

Antwerp started to be in two minds and felt that there was more to it, but still shunned the big risks. Deila threw in De Cuyper and Vetlessen for the final phase, but it all remained a bit too predictable.

Hans Vanaken gives Club Brugge three golden points at the last minute in a (too) mediocre top match, third defeat in a row for Antwerp

Foto: Isosport

Until Hans Vanaken managed a chest-controlled ball from Thiago into the goal and set Jan Breydel on fire. Successful substitutions at Antwerp, but especially golden substitutions at Club, which still remains unbeatable at home. Antwerp’s series is getting thinner and more dramatic every week: after Charleroi in the competition and Porto in the Champions League, this is already the third defeat in a row.

{
“type”: “aside-inline”,
“content”: [
{
“p”: “Club Brugge: Mignolet; Buchanan, Mechele, Spileers, Meijer (79’ De Cuyper) ; Onyedika, Nielsen, (79’ Vetlessen), Vanaken, Skov Olsen (90’ Ordonez); Zinckernagel (62’ Nusa), Jutgla (62’ Thiago)”
},
{
“p”: “Antwerp FC: Butez; De Laet (85’ Van Den Bosch), Alderweireld, Coulibaly, Bataille (63’ Corbanie); Vermeeren, Yusuf, Muja (72’ Ilenikhena), Ekkelenkamp, Balikwisha; Janssen”
},
{
“p”: “Doelpunten: 45’ Jutgla (Buchanan) 1-0, 72’ Ilenikhena (Corbanie)1-1, 90’ Vanaken (Thiago) 2)-1”
},
{
“p”: “Gele kaarten: 15’ Yusuf (fout), 35’ Nielsen (fout), 38’ Mechele (fout), 69’ Skov Olsen (protest), 90’ De Cuyper (fout)”
},
{
“p”: “Scheidsrechter: Bram Van Driessche”
},
{
“p”: “Toeschouwers: 23.724”
}
],
“title”: “Digest”
}

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