Club NXT U23 picked up a strong performance at the Edmond Machtens Stadium. Early on, coach Nicky Hayen's team took the lead with a header from captain Hautekiet. In the second half, Mertens doubled the score after a scrimmage in front of goal. With that, Club NXT scores six out of six against title contender RWDM and our youngsters remain on course for playoff 1.
In a bitterly cold stadium, many base players were absent due to the practice match in Lille with the first team. Yet it was Blauw-Zwart that immediately went on the attack. The first chance was for Mertens, but Le Joncour pushed the ball over the back line. At the other end, the 1-0 was rightly disallowed due to offside. After five minutes the first goal of the match fell anyway. Mathis Servais kicked a free kick into the penalty area, where Ibe Hautekiet headed the ball in. 0-1. A cold shower for the home team who, after the loss against Jong Genk, were determined not to lose again against a promising team. However, RWDM did not get many real goal chances. The very young Club NXT always put good pressure on the man in possession of the ball. After fifteen minutes, the leather flew high over Shinton's goal. Challouk then tested our Club NXT goalkeeper, but Shinton pushed the ball over the cover. On the half hour, he neutralized another chance from the home team. Blue-Black successfully defended its lead.
Shortly before halftime, the Brusselers had another opportunity to balance the score. The shot by yet another Challouk fortunately went wide. Just before the whistle Plange could not reach a cross, so our youngsters went to the dressing room with a lead.
Exciting end
Coach Euvrard changed some players at the start of the second half to turn the tide. For our U23, Seys was replaced by Cuevas. RWDM pressed immediately and it resulted in a shot by Challouk on the post. Fortunately, the ball bounced back into the field and Shinton was able to grab the leather. Shortly thereafter, Blue-Black did score. After a lot of fumbling the ball remained in the penalty area until it came at the feet of Mertens. He popped the ball in under goalkeeper Defourny. His fifth of the season and good for the 0-2. RWDM tried to respond. Biron popped over the Bruges goal. Smeets' shot disappeared through Spileers into a corner kick. Mertens could not score his second of the evening after a fine assist from Servais. Defourny had no problems this time. Both teams kept going for it. A Hautekiet cross was deflected and goalkeeper Defourny only just prevented the 0-3. Shinton saved a shot by Kylian Hazard. For his part, substitute Lenn De Smet unfortunately kicked wide of the right post. A very sharp cross from Hazard ended up on the crossbar via Shinton, but fortunately the goal remained on the board. The ever hard working Vermant also went for his chance. He curled the ball onto the post from long range.
Towards the end of the match, RWDM started looking more and more emphatically for the tying goal. Club NXT got lucky when the ball hit Spileers' arm. Fortunately, the referee did not award a penalty kick. Afterwards, Shinton saved another chance for the 1-2. Cuevas drew on a free kick for Club NXT's last opportunity to increase the score. However, it remained 0-2, a handsome victory for Blauw-Zwart, taking six out of six against one of the title contenders. Next game is the away match at the youngsters of Genk next Friday. Club NXT U23 remains hopeful of a place in playoff 1 with six games left to play.
Club NXT: Nick Shinton, Jorne Spileers, Joël Ordoñez, Ibe Hautekiet, Denzel De Roeve, Joaquin Seys (46' Mauricio Cuevas), Liam De Smet, Sem Audoor (56' William Simba), Mathis Servais (68' Lenn De Smet), Lennart Mertens, Romeo Vermant (90 + 2 Maxime Wameso). Bank: Henri Maton, Lukas Mondele, Oleksander Yakymenko.
Coach: Nicky Hayen.
RWDM: Théo Defourny, Florian Le Joncour, Yan Vorogovskiy (46' Fabio Ferraro), Mickaël Biron, Luke Plange (46' Bryan Smeets), Jake O'Brien, Gustavo Barreto (46' Luis Oyama), Jonathan Heris, Youssef Challouk, Alexis De Sart (73' Vinicius Lopes), Zakaria El Ouahdi.
Coach: Vincent Euvrard.
Goals: 5' Hautekiet 0-1, 53' Mertens 0-2.
Yellow Cards: 83' El Ouahdi.
Referee: Jordy Vermeire.
Stadium: Edmond Machtens Stadium.