Club Brugge secured its tenth consecutive league victory against Zulte Waregem. Blauw-Zwart won easily 3-0 thanks to goals from Badji, Sobol and Lang.
Philippe Clement made two changes to the team that faced Standard in the Cup on Thursday. Eduard Sobol was given preference at left back over Federico Ricca, while Noa Lang also reappeared at kickoff. The Dutchman replaced the yellow-suspended Ignace Van der Brempt and played up front alongside Youssouph Badji and Tahith Chong.
Club immediately went on the attack and created danger in the opening minute through Vanaken. However, Zulte Waregem did not dig in and could also threaten: Dompé aimed his shot straight at Mignolet and Bruno, who broke through, was flagged for offside. Moments later, Bruno just couldn't reach a deep ball from Govea. At Club, Noa Lang darted across the pitch again, but his shot toward the short corner failed to surprise Bostyn. After twenty minutes it worked: a shot by Chong was parried by Bostyn, but the rebound ended up with Badji, who fired the 1-0 high into goal.
Blue-Black was clearly in control and immediately went looking for more. Crosses from Vormer and Sobol were cleared just in front of Badji. On the half hour the Senegalese was replaced by Daniel Pérez and the Venezuelan was immediately at the basis of a good chance. However, Vormer was unable to capitalize on his cross. At the other end, a shot by Chorý went wide, but it was Club that was able to score a second time. After losing the ball from Opare, Eduard Sobol was able to go through alone and poke the ball in twice. Immediately after, Bostyn saved a shot by Lang just before the goal line.
After the break, Blauw-Zwart soon came close to a third goal. Vormer could not reach Pérez at first, but then Lang found Chong. However, the Dutchman hit the side netting. Immediately afterwards, Vanaken's shot also went just wide, while Pérez's header went wide. Club kept pushing, but Chong curled the ball over the goal and Vormer could not even frame his shot.
The deserved 3-0 fell shortly after the hour. After an action by Chong, Noa Lang kicked the ball into the roof of the goal. However, Bruges' hunger was not yet satisfied: Pérez headed a Mata cross just wide, but immediately afterwards it seemed to work. Vormer rounded off a fine attack successfully, but the goal was disallowed. The footage showed that Vormer was not offside, but VAR disallowed the goal because of offside by Pérez.
In the closing stages, the Bruges players took their foot off the gas pedal. A cross from Vormer was cleared and a distance shot from the captain sailed high over. In the closing minutes, Mata just failed to serve Okereke after an impressive rush. It remained 3-0 and so Club scored its tenth league victory in a row. Blauw-Zwart is now fifteen points ahead of first pursuer Antwerp, with two more games to catch up.
Jupiler Pro League - Matchday 29
Spectators: none - Jan Breydelstadion
Referee: Kevin Van Damme
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Clinton Mata, Odilon Kossounou, Brandon Mechele, Eduard Sobol - Ruud Vormer, Éder Balanta (66' Mats Rits), Hans Vanaken - Noa Lang (78' Nabil Dirar), Youssouph Badji (31' Daniel Pérez), Tahith Chong (66' David Okereke). Bench: Senne Lammens, Nick Shinton, Matej Mitrović, Federico Ricca, Stefano Denswil and Mats Rits. Coach: Philippe Clement.
Zulte Waregem: Louis Bostyn - Cameron Humphreys, Olivier Deschacht, Ewoud Pletinckx - Daniel Opare (46' Nikolaos Kainourgios), Omar Govea, Ibrahima Seck, Damien Marcq (58' Antoine Colassin), Jean-Luc Dompé (72' Panagiotis Armenakas) - Tomáš Chorý (58' Youssuf Sylla), Gianni Bruno. Coach: Francky Dury.
Yellow cards: none
Red cards: none
Goals: 21' Badji (1-0), 37' Sobol (2-0), 63' Lang (3-0).
Text: Steven Floin
