No fifth consecutive victory for Westerlo, Seraing takes the PhD student off his pink cloud

Westerlo-Seraing that was the duel between the PhD student and the Walloon club that had secured an extended stay in the Jupiler Pro League with blood, sweat and tears last season through jump-off matches against RWDM. A competition that was also dominated by Think Pink. With pink balloons and the kick-off given by Igor Vetokele and his wife Sarah, herself provisionally cured of breast cancer. Inevitably, the question arose as to whether or not Westerlo would fall from its pink cloud after the recent twelve out of twelve. Westerlo, who started with the same eleven as against Club Brugge, started the match weakly. It was like the decompression after the stunt win against Club Brugge. A weak header after five minutes from Lukas Mineiro and that was it. Even more. The Ruffs had to chase after the first best counterattack. Seraing, who speculated on the counterattack with a solid block – five defenders and many players behind the ball – was given too much space in the transition and Antoine Bernier coolly deviated a cross from Paul Poaty who had advanced along.

Own goal

The home team seemed a bit taken aback. We had to wait for a cross from Halill Akbunar that was lifted over the goal by Timothy Galjé. The ensuing corner kick landed right in the feet of Nikolas Madsen. The Danish U23 international’s shot deflected off Poaty and Galjé was worth the effort. Five minutes later, Westerlo had completely corrected the imbalance. Nacer Chadli was allowed to advance centrally. He sent Dorgeles Nene nicely into the depths and the sharp Malian tipped the ball over Galjé. Five minutes before half time, Seraing was lucky that a foul on the broken through Reynolds was not penalized.

New sacrifice

Anyone who would have thought that Seraing had been knocked out by those two goals from Westerlo was disappointed. Only defending and losing the ball from Mineiro – what a miserable game he played – promptly led to the equalizing goal. The cross from the right was subtly extended into goal by Marius Mouandilmadji. A new blow for Westerlo that just couldn’t get into the right rhythm. The pace was too slow and there were too many sloppiness. For coach Jonas De Roeck the signal to intervene. The weak Mineiro was released from his misery and replaced by Roman Neustädter and with Tuur Dierckx the T1 of Westerlo hoped for some extra creativity. Nikolas Madsen swung a ball in front of goal. Lyle Foster hit Zulte Waregem two weeks ago. This time, the South African international’s header was too flat. It’s not every week Club Brugge. Westerlo had much more ball possession, but in the zone of truth it did not work. Even a desperate final offensive was no longer a threat to the target.