Matchday 1 of the Champions' Playoffs immediately saw the Bruges city derby on the program. In the first half, Cercle Brugge took the lead through Denkey. In the second half, Club had several chances to equalize and eventually they did through Skov Olsen. In the end, both teams had to be satisfied with a draw.
After the loss against STVV on the last matchday of the regular competition, Blauw-Zwart said goodbye to Ronny Deila and Nicky Hayen was appointed interim coach. Hayen immediately made some changes to the starting line-up for the match against Cercle Brugge. In goal, Jackers again replaced the injured Mignolet under the crossbar and at right back Odoi was given confidence at the expense of Sabbe. Finally, Nusa was once again able to show his skills from the start. He played, along with Skóraś, in support of deep striker Thiago. Thus, Skov Olsen, who was not yet 100% fit, started on the bench.
In the opening minutes, it was Club that mainly let the ball pass from foot to foot, but without creating any concrete goal threat. Cercle quickly regained the balance and also created the first threat. Ravych brought the ball into the box and there Felipe Augusto was able to head towards goal, but with no problem for Jackers. Shortly after, the Blue-Black goalie did have to make a save when Denkey slipped through the offside trap and was able to go alone on goal. Cercle's striker fortunately failed to get the leather past Jackers, but here Club did escape. The reaction was not long in coming when a corner kick from Skóraś was taken. At the second post, Thiago was able to head freely into the pack, but Ordóñez failed to frame his effort from close range and kicked high over goal. After 20 minutes, Club was able to threaten several times on short notice, but without success. Warleson first parried a blast from Nusa and then an effort from Vetlesen was deflected just wide of the goal. In the corner kick that followed, Odoi went for his chance with a kick from the turn, but the leather landed over the top right corner.
As a result, the home team was under increasing pressure, but tried to look for Jackers' goal just about midway through the first half. Somers tried with a hard cross-shot, but the ball went wide. Again there was a quick reaction from the visitors with Thiago running into the depths and playing the ball back for Skóraś. Unfortunately, the Polish winger's shot lacked conviction and Warleson was unable to intervene. A few minutes later, the opening goal fell anyway. On a free kick by Van Der Bruggen, Utkus got to the ball and played wide for Denkey. The top marksman could not miss and gave the home team the lead. There was still a check for offside, but eventually the goal was validated. The visitors had to recover for a while, but on the stroke of halftime Nusa was still able to shake the nets. Unfortunately, however, the party did not continue, because after the intervention of VAR, an offside call by Thiago was found. Thus, both teams went into the locker room with a 1-0 score...
The second half started with a change at Blauw-Zwart. Odoi injured himself at the end of the first half and so Sabbe was allowed to start the second. Club immediately went in search of the equalizer through Vanaken who served Skóraś, but the Pole did not kick convincingly enough towards goal. This did signal a wave of attacks from Blauw-Zwart. Nusa got the ball into the back of the defense, but found Warleson in his path. In the retrieval, the Norwegian kicked across against the post and then Ravych made a save on the line on an attempt by Skóraś. Shortly after, Nusa was allowed to try again on a Thiago pass, but Warleson pushed the deviated shot against the post. Bad luck for Club, then, and Vanaken also failed to get the ball against the nets a few minutes later. Vetlesen found the captain with a crafty ball, but the latter unfortunately could not frame. Just after the hour, Cercle tried to respond for the first time through Abu Francis, who had just stepped in, but the ball went over the goal.
Meanwhile Blauw-Zwart continued to search for that important equalizer, but the goal frame did not favor the visitors. Vanaken got behind the ball for a free kick on the edge of the penalty area, but his shot hit the goallat. The next to try was Nielsen. Sabbe put the ball in front of goal, but the Danish midfielder's header went over Warleson's cage. Jutglà was also a good substitute for Club, but he too did not find his way to the nets. Cercle's goalie parried the Catalan's shot into the short corner. A Blauw-Zwart goal was inevitable...and so it happened! De Cuyper and Jutglà played Skov Olsen well free and the Dane placed the leather subtly in the far corner against the nets. After the deserved equalizer, the visitors went in search of that winning goal. Thiago was unfortunate this afternoon, however, and saw his header go wide via Daland.
Five extra minutes were counted and Warleson saved the game in extremis for Cercle. On a deflected cross Nielsen was able to head the ball towards goal from very close range, but the home goalie had an excellent reflex to prevent the goal. In the end, no more goals were scored and both teams had to be satisfied with a point. Based on the number of chances Blauw-Zwart would have deserved more, but it was not to be. Next week all on post for the home match against RSC Anderlecht!
Champions' Play-offs - Playday 1
Spectators: 10.000 - Jan Breydelstadion
Referee: Erik Lambrechts
Cercle Brugge: Warleson - Edgaras Utkus, Jesper Daland, Boris Popovic, Christiaan Ravych (61' Hugo Siquet) - Hannes Van Der Bruggen, Leonardo Lopes, Felipe Augusto (61' Abu Francis) - Thibo Somers, Kévin Denkey (90+5' Kazeem Olaigbe), Alan Minda (73' Félix Lemaréchal).
Bank: Maxime Delanghe, Hugo Siquet, Jonas Lietaert, Félix Lemaréchal, Abu Francis, Nils De Wilde, Malamine Efekele, Kazeem Olaigbe, Abdoul Kader Ouattara.
Coach: Miron Muslic.
Club Brugge: Nordin Jackers - Denis Odoi (46' Kyriani Sabbe), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Bjorn Meijer (78' Maxim De Cuyper) - Raphael Onyedika, Hugo Vetlesen (65' Casper Nielsen), Hans Vanaken - Michał Skóraś (56' Ferran Jutglà), Igor Thiago, Antonio Nusa (65' Andreas Skov Olsen).
Bank: Josef Bursik, Nick Shinton, Jorne Spileers, Kyriani Sabbe, Maxim De Cuyper, Casper Nielsen, Éder Balanta, Shion Homma, Chemsdine Talbi, Andreas Skov Olsen, Ferran Jutglà.
Coach: Nicky Hayen.
Yellow cards: Onyedika
Red cardsnone
Goals: 32' Denkey (1-0), 83' Skov Olsen (1-1).
