With Beerschot, a team from the top of the standings came to visit. A win for Club NXT U23 meant a climb to third place just one point from leaders Lommel and Zulte-Waregem.
Our youngsters therefore immediately went on the attack. De Roeve crossed the ball first time after one of his typical rushes on the flank. However, Barbera was flagged off for offside. A subsequent quick attack by Club NXT through Homma was also flagged down. The visitors showed themselves a first time through Sanusi who popped high over goal. Also via a free kick, the Kiel midfielder could not beat Shinton. The ball disappeared into corner kick thanks to our goalkeeper. When the ball got through the defense to striker Barbera, it was wrongly stopped by goalkeeper Matijas. His foul earned him the red card. With more than an hour to play, things looked good for Club NXT with ten against eleven.
Our youngsters combined calmly on a field that was getting wetter and slippery from the heavy rain. However, the last pass was never clean and really dangerous chances remained out for the time being. There was a bit of a scare when Beerschot came close to scoring 0-1 from a corner kick. Goalkeeper Shinton saved the ball when Keita was ready to kick in at the first post. Captain Vermant in turn tried from long range, but his effort went wide. Beerschot again tried to take the lead via a stoppage time, but a free kick by Mathys failed that intent. The ball rolled past the Bruges goal. Towards the end of the first half another shot by the very industrious De Roeve was blocked, after yet another fine individual action by Homma. Vermant worked as hard as ever, but on a pass from Lenn De Smet he too could not finish. At halftime, then, we did so with a glasses score.
