On match day 3 of the Champions' Playoffs , Club Brugge headed to the Dudenpark for the topper against leaders Union. On the quarter hour Club took the lead thanks to a header goal by Mechele, but Union equalized moments later through Biondic. In the second half, the home team put more and more pressure and eventually Zeneli scored the winning goal. Thus Club went down 2-1 on the leader's field.
Blauw-Zwart won last weekend after a hard-fought 1-2 victory at Sint-Truiden and so coach Ivan Leko had little reason to make many changes to his starting line-up. Nevertheless, three substitutions were made for the match against Union. Sabbe injured himself against STVV and he was replaced by Meijer, moving Seys to the right flank. Perhaps the biggest surprise was in midfield, where Vanaken was absent. The captain was not fully fit and consequently started on the bench. That way Vetlesen got the chance to show himself from the start. Finally, in attack, Vermant was opted for this time and so Tresoldi also had to content himself with a substitute role.
It was not long to wait for the first ball between the posts, as already after two minutes Jackers was put to the test. Meijer slipped and so Khalaili had time and space to bang towards goal, but the Bruges goalie reacted alertly to parry the shot. Moments later, Club got away well ... Rodríguez headed a cross from Khalaili into the far corner against the nets, but VAR had narrowly detected offside, disallowing the goal. On the quarter hour, Blue-Black responded wisely and this time the party did go ahead! Tzolis cut a corner kick well and at the first zone Mechele extended the ball with his head to goal. There Scherpen couldn't get the leather out of his nets and so the Bruges lead was on the board.
A little over halfway through the first half, Seys played the ball nicely centrally to Vetlesen and the Norwegian midfielder was able to run towards Union's sixteen. He eventually had a chance to play to Tzolis, but decided to go for his own success and unfortunately his shot was insufficient to worry Scherpen. On the half-hour mark, the boards hung in balance again after a counter-punch by Union. Khalaili sent a sharp pass to Biondic and the latter came inside before curling the leather past Jackers in the far corner. A few minutes later the home team created another threat when Rodríguez snatched the ball from Mechele, but fortunately his shot went wide. The Ecuadorian striker remained the most dangerous man for the Brusselers though, as he decided on Jackers from a sharp angle shortly after. After an intense first half, they finally rested with a 1-1 halftime score....
The same 22 main players started the second half and this time it was Club that came out of the locker room best. Vetlesen laid the ball aside just outside the sixteen for Tzolis, who immediately went for his chance, but his effort was too central and posed no problem for Scherpen. A few minutes later Forbs put himself through in the sixteen, but his shot from a sharp angle was ultimately not hard enough to outsmart Union's goalie. The threat kept coming from the Bruges side now, but Seys failed to frame his shot on a dropped ball from the second line. Shortly thereafter it was Tzolis' turn again, but this time a Union defender was in the path of the shot. This time there was a reaction from the home team, but fortunately Jackers was just able to put his hand against a high header from Sykes to the far post.
Midway through the second half, Union again took more and more control of the game and this resulted mainly in a lot of crosses into the box, but without Jackers really having to act. Club consequently had more and more trouble getting out from under the pressure and after eighty minutes the goal unfortunately fell for Union. Khalaili was able to push through on his flank and then played aside at the right moment for the infiltrating Zeneli. The latter did not hesitate and popped the leather past Jackers against the nets. Coach Leko tried to change things up by bringing in Tresoldi, Nilsson and Diakhon, among others. At the end of regular playing time, the equalizer was just around the corner via a close-range header by Stanković, but Scherpen made an ultimate save to prevent the goal. In the retrieval, Vanaken then kicked high over goal.
Finally, five extra minutes were counted, during which Club once again tried to go all out. This resulted in some dangerous crosses, but unfortunately the equalizer was not achieved. Blauw-Zwart lost 2-1 and Union did an excellent job.
Champions' Play-offs - Day 3
Spectators: 9,000 - Stade Joseph Marien
Referee: Lawrence Visser
Union Saint-Gilloise: Kjell Scherpen - Kevin Mac Allister, Christian Burgess, Ross Sykes - Anan Khalaili, Adem Zorgane, Kamiel Van De Perre (86' Ivan Pavlic), Anouar Ait El Hadj (64' Besfort Zeneli), Guilherme Smith - Mateo Biondic (90+5' Massiré Sylla), Kevin Rodríguez (86' Mohammed Fuseini).
Bench: Vic Chambaere, Jens Teunckens, Massiré Sylla, Guillaume François, Ivan Pavlic, Louis Patris, Ousseynou Niang, Mohammed Fuseini, Raul Florucz, Besfort Zeneli.
Coach: David Hubert.
Club Brugge: Nordin Jackers - Joaquin Seys (90' Gustaf Nilsson), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Bjorn Meijer (84' Hugo Siquet) - Aleksandar Stanković, Raphael Onyedika (69' Hans Vanaken), Hugo Vetlesen (84' Nicolò Tresoldi) - Carlos Forbs (90' Mamadou Diakhon), Romeo Vermant, Christos Tzolis.
Bank: Dani van den Heuvel, Jorne Spileers, Hugo Siquet, Cisse Sandra, Shandre Campbell, Hans Vanaken, Mamadou Diakhon, Nicolò Tresoldi, Gustaf Nilsson.
Coach: Ivan Leko.
Yellow cards: Sykes, Vetlesen, Zorgane, Forbs, Vermant, Khalaili, Ordóñez, Stanković
Red cards: none
Goals: 15' Mechele (0-1), 29' Biondic (1-1), 81' Zeneli (2-1)