Club puts three past Norwich City

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, Blauw-Zwart won convincingly 3-0 with Vanaken, Nilsson and Jutglà on the scoresheet.

Team first half: Mignolet, Et-Taïbi, Mechele, Romero, Seys, Vetlesen, Nielsen, Vanaken, Nusa, Nilsson and Tzolis.

Club was quick of the mark in their last pre-season friendly. Inside the first five minutes Vanaken opened the scoring with a great effort into the bottom right corner after he was played in perfectly by Tzolis.

The next chance for Club resulted in a second goal. This time it was Nilsson who half-volleyed it in on his debut. Norwich regrouped and created a first chance via Rowe, but his shot was blocked by academy player Seys.

Club remained the better side and were mostly on Norwich' half. Tzolis cut inside from the left and slammed the ball against the crossbar. When the Greek lost the ball to his former team, Sainz created time and space for himself to fire at goal, but his shot whizzed wide.

The biggest chance came for Romero who rose highest to meet with a corner kick, but his header was saved by Norwich goalkeeper Long.

Just past the half-hour mark coach Hayen made a first planned substitution: goalscorer Nilsson came off for Jutglà. The Canaries also made a first change when Hilss came on for Idah. On the stroke of half-time a perfectly-weighted pass sent Tzolis towards Long, but he was brought down inside the penalty area. Referee D'Hondt however waved away the appeals.

Second half

No substitutions for Club at the beginning of the second half and just the one for the visitors: Tomkinson replaced Warner.

The start of the second half was a lot less lively than the first, but the first threat immediately resulted in a goal. After a good steal by Romero, Club was quickly at the other side of the pitch. Jutglà let Nusa's pass go through his legs, only to collect it again from Vetlesen and then curl it in brilliantly: 3-0. A great build-up and goal from the Catalan!

With just less of half an hour to play both teams made a glut of substitutions. For Club it was Vermant, Spileers, Talbi, Audoor and Yameogo who replaced Nielsen, Vetlesen, Romero, Tzolis and Et-Taïbi. For Norwich it was Mair, Adegboyega, Renecke, Manning, Djedje, Myles, Springett, Welch and Aboah who came on for Long, Stacey, Sainz, Sara, Sørensen, Rowe, Fisher, Kamara and Montóia.

The many substitutions made the remainder of the match a bit sluggish with little goal threat. Hayen made four more changes ten minutes before the end: Willems, Liam De Smet, Wylin and Boyata came on for Mechele, Vanaken, Seys and Nusa. For Norwich Forsyth replaced Myles, who had received a knock.

Club controlled the game until the final whistle and wins its last friendly 3-0. A solid performance for Saturday's first big game, when Blauw-Zwart takes on Union for the Supercup.