On match day 27 of the Jupiler Pro League, Club Brugge traveled to the Stade du Pays to take on RSC Charleroi. After 35 minutes Charleroi took the lead through Keita and 1-0 was also the score at halftime. In the second half, Club was much more dominant and against 10 men, Brugge came alongside through a penalty goal by Tzolis. In the last minute of added time, Ordóñez finally brought Bruges delirium when he kicked the ball past Koné.
Blauw-Zwart left the European stage last week with their heads held high after a 4-1 defeat against Atlético de Madrid. Coach Ivan Leko was also satisfied with his team's performance and consequently made only one substitution in his starting lineup. Onyedika was suspended for yellow on Tuesday, but took his place in midfield. Vetlesen had to content himself with a place on the bench. The attacking trio again consisted of Forbs, Tresoldi and Tzolis.
In the opening minutes it was Club that immediately went on the attack, but it was the home side that created the first goal threat after four minutes. A free kick was headed towards goal by Bernier, but Mignolet had little trouble with the header, tapping it over his goal. Shortly thereafter the same Bernier showed himself again, but this time he kicked wide on a pass from Romsaas. This was followed by a phase in which Blauw-Zwart regained the balance in terms of ball possession, but this did not immediately lead to any concrete goal threat. Halfway through the first half, the game was well balanced.
Just after halfway the first half Charleroi could threaten after an inferior kick from Mignolet, but Scheidler hesitated too long to take advantage of this and so the Bruges defense could dismantle the danger. Just before the half hour mark, Club's first real goal threat came, unsurprisingly, from Forbs. In his usual way, the Portuguese came inside to aim for the far corner. His blast, however, unfortunately went just wide of Koné's cage. After 35 minutes, it was unfortunately on the other side that the goal fell. Van Den Kerkhof was sent deep and immediately put the ball low in front of goal. There the ball landed at the feet of Keita, who did not hesitate to kick the lead past Mignolet. The visitors from Bruges tried to respond with a header from Mechele, but that posed no problem for Koné. Thus we went to rest with a 1-0 lead for the Carolos....
The same 22 names were on the match sheet to start the second half and, as in the first, it was again Club that tried to put pressure forward immediately. The home team now found it increasingly difficult to get out, but for now Koné could not really be put to work. Stanković in particular infiltrated well into the sixteen several times, but at this stage failed to frame his attempts. After an hour of play, the lights went out for Van Den Kerkhof, when he made a terrible tackle on Tzolis. A direct red card was the justifiable result and fortunately Tzolis was able to continue.
A little over halfway through the second half, Bruges' dominance was finally rewarded! Sabbe put the ball low in front of goal and there Tresoldi was tapped in by Keita. Ref Verbeke hesitated at first, but then pointed to the spot anyway and got confirmation from VAR. Tzolis took his responsibility and sent Koné the wrong way to balance the score. The visitors now started looking even more emphatically for that second (and possibly winning) goal, but Charleroi remained well organized. In minute 82, the visitors managed to create a goal, but on a pass from Tzolis, Onyedika failed to get past Koné. A few minutes later, the home goalie also failed to clear a Tzolis kick. At this point, coach Leko intervened for the first time with a triple substitution, bringing in Diakhon and Vermant, among others.
There were no less than eight minutes of extra time and it was Charleroi that created some threat through a shot by Camara. Blauw-Zwart responded with a shot by Diakhon wide of the goal, but the organ point was yet to come! In minute 100 the ball was laid back to Ordóñez, who kicked the ball hard past Koné from the edge of the penalty area. Thus, the Bruggelings still took the victory in the Stade du Pays and took full advantage of STVV's and Union's loss of points!
Jupiler Pro League - Match day 27
Spectators: 15,000 - Stade du Pays de Charleroi
Referee: Bert Verbeke
RSC Charleroi: Mohamed Koné - Kevin Van Den Kerkhof, Aiham Ousou, Cheick Keita, Mardochée - Étienne Camara, Yassine Titraoui, Jakob Napoleon Romsaas (89' Patrick Pflücke) - Antoine Bernier (65' Lewin Blum), Parfait Guiagon (76' Mehdi Boukamir), Aurélien Scheidler.
Bank: Martin Delavallée, Mehdi Boukamir, Lewin Blum, Amine Boukamir, Yoann Cissé, Patrick Pflücke, Yassine Khalifi, Antoine Colassin, Filip Szymczak.
Coach: Hans Cornelis.
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Kyriani Sabbe (85' Hugo Siquet), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Joaquin Seys (85' Mamadou Diakhon) - Raphael Onyedika (90+1' Hugo Vetlesen), Aleksandar Stanković, Hans Vanaken - Carlos Forbs, Nicolò Tresoldi (85' Romeo Vermant), Christos Tzolis.
Bench: Nordin Jackers, Jorne Spileers, Bjorn Meijer, Hugo Siquet, Hugo Vetlesen, Félix Lemaréchal, Mamadou Diakhon, Shandre Campbell, Romeo Vermant.
Coach: Ivan Leko.
Yellow cards: Camara, Forbs, Koné, Blum, Scheidler
Red cards: Van Den Kerkhof
Goals: 35' Keita (1-0), 74' Tzolis (1-1), 90+10' Ordóñez (1-2)