In the last practice match leading up to the new season, Club took on Norwich City at The NEST. Under a virtuous sun and with a lot of enthusiastic supporters, Blue-Black won with convincing 3-0 figures after goals from Vanaken, Nilsson & Jutglà.
Line-up first half: Mignolet, Et-Taïbi, Mechele, Romero, Seys, Vetlesen, Nielsen, Vanaken, Nusa, Nilsson & Tzolis.
After good tapping from Blauw-Zwart, the first chance of the match was an immediate hit. A cross from Tzolis reached Vanaken, who kicked low into the bottom right corner past goalkeeper Long: 1-0.
Moments later, debutant Nilsson immediately made it 2-0. Norwich City couldn't get the ball out of the sixties and Nusa reached the free-flowing Nilsson: he kicked the ball steely into goal!
Afterwards, Norwich came up with the first chance. Rowe advanced from the left, but his shot was blocked after good defending by Seys.
Club pressed on and had the best chances. Tzolis cut inside well and kicked to the far corner, but his hard shot hit the crossbar. Norwich created another danger after Tzolis lost the ball. Sainz went for a one-man action after a clever dribble, but his shot went just wide of goal.
The biggest chance for the 3-0 was for Romero, who received yellow a few minutes before after a foul on Kamara. On corner from Club, Romero towered over everyone, but his header was well saved by goalkeeper Long.
In the 35th minute, we got a first planned substitution: goal scorer Nilsson still needs some building up and went off for Jutglà. Norwich also changed: Hills came in for Idah. Just before halftime, Tzolis was brought down in the box, but referee D'Hondt did not think it was a penalty. Half-time score: 2-0.
