Matchday 26 of the Jupiler Pro League featured the Bruges city derby between Cercle Brugge and Club Brugge. The home team took the lead through Minda, but Jutglà equalized for Club. The city derby thus ended without a winner.
Blauw-Zwart beat KAS Eupen 4-0 fairly easily last match day, so coach Deila had little reason to shake up his starting line-up. Nevertheless, there were some changes: Vanaken and Thiago returned from suspension and took their places in the starting lineup. Skóraś and Jutglà had to settle for a place on the bench. At the back, Ordóñez was given the confidence to play alongside Mechele, at the expense of Spileers. At Cercle Brugge, the main absentee was Somers, as he had to watch suspended.
Club showed its attacking drive from the first minute and this immediately produced a great opportunity. Meijer brought the ball low in front of goal and there Skov Olsen laid off for De Cuyper. Unfortunately he did not hit the ball with his left and his shot went wide. The home side tried to respond through Denkey, but his volley went high over goal. Shortly afterwards, however, Mignolet had to intervene, when again Minda pushed forward and played the ball to Denkey. The top marksman kicked across from an acute angle, but Club's goalie made himself well wide and parried the shot. A little after the quarter-hour mark, Thiago slipped through the offside trap and had the chance to open the scoring, but the Brazilian striker failed to frame his shot and decided over Warleson's cage.
There were not many big chances thus far, but the biggest goal threat came from Blauw-Zwart. Nielsen put the ball in front of goal and there Nusa headed back to Skov Olsen. The Danish winger immediately tried from the turn, but his effort went wide of the goal. On the half hour, Cercle still showed through Lemaréchal, but after a one-two with Augusto, his shot spun away from goal. In the last quarter of the first half, there were hardly any chances to be noted, but mostly a lot of duels. In the added time, Lemaréchal tried from distance, but his shot from the left was no problem for Mignolet. We rested with a logical 0-0...
The same 22 names were still on the sheet to start the second half, but it initially began on the same momentum as the first ended. The game went somewhat holderdebolder up and down with many duels but few chances as a result. After about 10 minutes there was some commotion when Lemaréchal went to the ground after a duel with Vanaken. Cercle consequently screamed for a penalty kick, but Lardot did not whistle and was not corrected by VAR either. On the hour, Club ei so after took the lead via a header from Meijer on a corner kick, but Warleson had an excellent reflex to prevent the deficit. In the phase that followed, Minda recovered the ball at the own sixteen before dribbling solo to the opposite side. Blauw-Zwart's defense gave way a little too long and so Minda was finally able to kick toward goal. The leather bounced over the arms of Mignolet against the nets and so the home side took the lead.
Halfway through the second half, Club had the chance to equalize when Meijer ran down his flank and served Thiago in the sixteen. He had time and space to hit the nets, but unfortunately he rashly decided to pass. Coach Deila reacted by bringing in Jutglà for Ordóñez to put even more pressure forward. Not much later, this immediately resulted in a good chance for Nusa, but his blast was still cleared out of the corner by Warleson. Ten minutes before the end of regular playing time, Club came alongside! Nusa put the ball in front of goal and Jutglà headed it into the far corner. At the end of regular playing time, Thiago received a red card after a collision with Warleson, but this was corrected by VAR and consequently the striker was allowed to stay on the pitch.
We got no less than 13 minutes of added time and in that time Blauw-Zwart had the best opportunity. Again, Nusa was the passer for Jutglà, but this time, the Spanish striker didn't hit the ball fully and the shot went wide. Finally, Thiago received his second yellow card and Club had to continue with 10. Cercle got no further than a distance shot by Denkey into Mignolet's arms, and so the Bruges city derby ended without a winner. Next Sunday the topper against RSC Anderlecht is on the program!
Jupiler Pro League - Playday 26
Spectators: 16.000 - Jan Breydelstadion
Referee: Jonathan Lardot
Cercle Brugge: Warleson - Edgaras Utkus (78' Jonas Lietaert), Boris Popovic, Jesper Daland, Senna Miangue - Leonardo Lopes Da Silva, Hannes Van Der Bruggen, Félix Lemaréchal - Alan Minda (78' Abdoul Kader Ouattara), Felipe Augusto (71' Malamine Efekele), Kévin Denkey.
Bench: Maxime Delanghe, Sébastien Bruzzese, Malamine Efekele, Abu Francis, Kazeem Olaigbe, Rayan El Bahri, Jonas Lietaert, Jordan Semedo, Abdoul Kader Ouattara. Coach: Miron Muslic.
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Maxim De Cuyper, Joel Ordóñez (72' Ferran Jutglà), Brandon Mechele, Bjorn Meijer - Éder Balanta, Casper Nielsen (90+2' Michał Skóraś), Hans Vanaken - Andreas Skov Olsen (90+10' Jorne Spileers), Igor Thiago, Antonio Nusa (90+10' Raphael Onyedika).
Bench: Josef Bursik, Denis Odoi, Michał Skóraś, Ferran Jutglà, Raphael Onyedika, Dedryck Boyata, Jorne Spileers, Shion Homma, Kyriani Sabbe.
Coach: Ronny Deila.
Yellow cards: Thiago (2x), Odoi, Skóraś
Red cards: Thiago (2x yellow)
Goals: 60' Minda (1-0), 81' Jutglà (1-1)
