Club NXT U23 had a complete offday against Eupen, losing 0-4 at The NEST. Two goals against early in the first half killed our youngsters. Against a stiff and compact Eupen, Club NXT found it difficult to create real chances. The Pandas controlled the entire match and poked two more goals against in the second half. A false start after the last international break of 2024.
Coach Veldman rested some players returning from international duty on the bench, also with an eye on the important match against Celtic in the Youth League next Wednesday. Yameogo and Willems remained sidelined with injuries. At Eupen, Brandon Baiyé, a former player from the Club Brugge U23 team, started on the bench.
Both teams started the match intensely, but it was Eupen that put our youngsters under pressure immediately. Goalkeeper De Corte was unlucky when he badly put the ball back in play. A Eupen foot intervened and after only six minutes of play Charles-Cook netted the 0-1. Shortly after, the Pandas doubled the score through an attack on the right. Club NXT was still affected by the early counter-goal and Gedikli easily netted the 0-2. A cold shower that our youngsters could not recover from.
Eupen continued to control the match. Very little succeeded at Blauw-Zwart. Campbell tried with a distance shot, but the ball went over the Eupen goal. Only shortly before the break goalie Nurudeen had to prevent the tying goal. First he pushed a shot by Campbell into a corner. On the stroke of half-time Lenn De Smet came face to face with the Eupen goalie. Unfortunately he won the game and we rested with a disappointing 0-2 on the scoreboard.
In the second half, Club NXT tried to change course, but Eupen continued to control the game. Furo replaced Faraas, but he too couldn't find his way to the goal. It was our goalkeeper who had to neutralize the first dangerous goal chances.
On the hour, the hard working De Roeve came close to a goal, but his hard shot went narrowly wide. Unfortunate ball loss by Lynnt Audoor heralded the 0-3. The ball went to Charles-Cook who gave De Corte no chance. Coach Veldman replaced a lot of players, but the game remained the same.
Shortly before the end, Club NXT had to drink the chalice to the bottom. On a corner kick the substitute Niang was able to head the ball in. 0-4, a painful result after a complete offday of our team. After the Youth League at Celtic, two crucial matches await our youngsters in Francs Borains and at home against the RSCA Futures, two teams from the bottom of the rankings that they should be able to beat.
Club NXT U23: Axl De Corte, Denzel De Roeve (76' Wout Verlinden), Siebe Wylin, Amine Et-Yaïbi, Sem Audoor (77' Renzo Tytens), Liam De Smet, Lynnt Audoor, Shandre Campbell (56' Jessi Da Silva), Alejandro Granados (76' Daniel Perez), Lenn De Smet, Benjamin Faraas (46' Kaye Furo). Bench: Argus Vanden Driessche, Naim Amengai, Tobias Lund Jensen, Laurens Goemaere. Coach: Robin Veldman.
KAS Eupen: Abdul Nurudeen, Scott Kennedy, Jan Gorenc, Rune Paeshuyse, Teddy Alloh (62' Luca Dalla Costa), Amadou Keita (87' Kevin Möhwald), Milos Pantovic (64' Brandon Bayié), Yentl Van Genechten, Regan Charles-Cook (62' Bertan Caliskan), Emrehan Gedikli, Jérôme Déom (62' Youssou Niang). Bank: Julian Renner, Jaden Malhage, Karol Youndje, Luca Chavet. Coach: Mersad Selimbegovic.
Goals: 6' Charles-Cook 0-1, 11' Gedikli 0-2, 74' Charles-Cook 0-3, 90+2' Niang 0-4.
Yellow cards : 29' Kennedy, 34' Alloh, 38' Pantovic, 63' Charles-Cook, 80' Wylin, 90' Et-Taïbi.
Referee : Ruben Calluy.
Stadium : The NEST Roeselare.
Spectators : 291.