Club Brugge has added a nineteenth title to its impressive prize cabinet! The city derby turned out not for the faint-hearted, but after the 0-0 Club finishes in first place and are Champions of Belgium!
With the three point lead resulting from last week's win at Anderlecht, Club Brugge offered itself a match ball on the final Match day of the season. A point would ascertain Club's Nr 1 spot. To do so, Club had to make do without coach Nicky Hayen, sent off at Anderlecht and suspended. Assistant Michiel Jonckheere held the reigns for this all-important encounter, and changed the Club Starting XI in just one spot: Andreas Skov Olsen came into the team at the expense of Casper Nielsen, leaving Hugo Vetlesen in his usual midfield position.
The match started in a swirling Jan Breydel at high intensity, but with few clear-cut chances. The first danger came twelve minutes in through Denkey, but the top scorer's shot went wide. A number of corner kicks followed for Blue & Black, and one of them let the audience gasp for air: Warleson could not get a solid touch to the ball, as Jutglà deviated the ball with his thigh towards goal, but Ravych saved the day for the visitors clearing the ball spectacularly from the goal line with a back heel. On the half hour, another chance followed through Vanaken, but his volley whizzed over the crossbar.
True to its well-known style, Cercle played with a lot of intensity and found its way into the game bit by bit, and with ten minutes before the break, the visitors threatened twice: a Popovic header going wide and a shot by Somers over. At the other end, Jutglà seemed to be in a promising position, but the Spaniard could not get past Daland. The last danger of the first half came through Skov Olsen, who saw his shot go wide.
With Union and Anderlecht both in the lead at half time, Club knew the job at hand: get that one point to crown itself champions. At the start of the second half, Blauw-Zwart stepped up a gear creating some fine chances. Skóraś with the low cross, but both Jutglà and Skov Olsen just couldn't connect with it. Straight after, Warleson had two excellent saves on shots by De Cuyper and Vanaken, and moments later, Vetlesen was unable to complete a fine solo as the Norwegian's shot whizzed over. On the other side, Denkey hit the side netting, while a Lemaréchal shot sailed over.
An excruciating final fifteen minutes saw an even more tense game, and with ten minutes to go, fate seemed to strike. A free kick by Siquet ended up towards goal where it seemed to go in, but Odoi seemingly managed to clear it just in time. It felt like a lucky break, but VAR called ref Lardot to the screen to review the footage, as the ball looked to have gone over the line. Minutes went by, and it was deemed that the ball had indeed crossed the line, but Siquet's free kick showed a Cercle player in off-side position. Club got off scot-free, but the game remained a nail-biter until the final seconds.
With Genk suffering defeat at the hands of Union, Cercle also had enough with the one point, so both teams took no more risks in injury time. As ref Lardot blew the whistle after seven minutes of injury time, Jan Breydel exploded in joy! Club Brugge are Champions yeat again after a great catch-up in the Champions' play-offs!
Jupiler Pro League - Champions' Play-offs: Match day 10
Spectators: 29,042 - Jan Breydel Stadium
Referee: Jonathan Lardot
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Denis Odoi, Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Maxim De Cuyper - Hugo Vetlesen (94' Éder Balanta), Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken - Andreas Skov Olsen (70' Antonio Nusa), Ferran Jutglà, Michał Skóraś (94' Casper Nielsen). Bench: Joe Bursik, Nordin Jackers, Dedryck Boyata, Jorne Spileers, Shion Homma, Kyriani Sabbe, Chemsdine Talbi and Philip Zinckernagel. Coach: Michiel Jonckheere.
Cercle Brugge: Warleson - Christiaan Ravych (75' Hugo Siquet), Boris Popovic, Jesper Daland, Leonardo Lopes Da Silva - Thibo Somers, Hannes Van der Bruggen, Félix Lemaréchal (87' Senna Miangue), Abu Francis (75' Flavio Nazinho), Felipe Da Silva (64' Alan Minda) - Kévin Denkey. Coach: Miron Muslic.
Yellow: Odoi.
Red: none
Goals: none
