Club Brugge beat Antwerp 2-1 at home. Ferran Jutglà gave Blauw-Zwart the lead on the stroke of half-time with a beautiful goal, but substitute Ilenikhena scored the equalizer twenty minutes before time. In the end, it was Hans Vanaken who gave Club the three points in the final minute.
Ronny Deila made two changes to the team that won over Lugano on Thursday. In midfield, Raphaël Onyedika took the place of Éder Balanta, while up front Ferran Jutglà was preferred to Igor Thiago. Both teams initially focused on organization, so there were hardly any chances in the early stages. The first danger came after ten minutes with a free kick: Skov Olsen hit the ball straight at the wall. Moments later, the Dane returned another free kick to Nielsen, but he could not frame his shot.
It took until the half hour before there was a real chance: Skov Olsen curled the ball in front of goal, but his cross was headed away just in front of the on-rushing Meijer. Immediately afterwards a blocked shot by Nielsen rolled to the feet of Jutglà, but his shot was parried by Butez. The visitors themselves got no further than two unmarked shots by Ekkelenkamp and Balikwisha. 0-0 seemed to be the half-time score, but that was beyond Ferran Jutglà. After a far throw-in from Buchanan, the Catalan with his back to goal held the ball in the air three times and then he tapped the leather into goal in genius fashion!
The match was now definitely broken open, as new goal danger followed immediately after halftime. After a clever chop by Vanaken, Zinckernagel had a shooting chance, but Butez did not allow himself to be surprised. At the other end, Muja tried from an acute angle, but Mignolet was also on hand. Immediately after, a blast from Buchanan zoomed wide and a cross from Skov Olsen was cleared in extremis. On the hour, the visitors were suddenly able to score, but the goal was disallowed due to clear offside by Bataille.
Deila then threw in Nusa and Thiago, to the detriment of Zinckernagel and Jutglà. Club did not get into trouble and also remained the most threatening team. Skov Olsen was stopped in extremis, Meijer just couldn't reach a teammate and a header by Thiago was saved by Butez. Instead of 2-0, however, it became 1-1. George Ilenikhena was only seconds on the pitch when he deviated a cross from Corbanie into goal.
All to redo, then, for Club, which gained a little more attacking impetus with the contributions of De Cuyper and Vetlesen. However, a header by Vanaken was turned into a corner, while at the other end Mignolet had to pull out all the stops on an Alderweireld header. Five minutes before time, Nusa served the free Skov Olsen, but the Dane cracked his shot. The devil was in the tail, however, as Blauw-Zwart took the three points in the final minute. Igor Thiago controlled a cross from Nusa with his chest and put the ball back to Hans Vanaken, who kicked in the 2-1 in the far corner!
Jupiler Pro League - Matchday 12
Spectators: 27,000 - Jan Breydelstadion
Referee: Bram Van Driessche
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Tajon Buchanan, Brandon Mechele, Jorne Spileers, Bjorn Meijer (79' Maxim De Cuyper) - Casper Nielsen (79' Hugo Vetlesen), Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken - Andreas Skov Olsen (92' Joel Ordóñez), Ferran Jutglà (62' Igor Thiago), Philip Zinckernagel (62' Antonio Nusa). Bench: Nordin Jackers, Axl De Corte and Éder Balanta. Coach: Ronny Deila.
Royal Antwerp FC: Jean Butez - Ritchie De Laet (85' Zeno Van den Bosch), Toby Alderweireld, Soumaïla Coulibaly, Jelle Bataille (63' Kobe Corbanie) - Alhassan Yussuf, Arthur Vermeeren, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp - Arbnor Muja (72' George Ilenikhena), Vincent Janssen, Michel Ange Balikwisha. Coach: Mark Van Bommel.
Yellow cards: Yussuf, Nielsen, Mechele, Skov Olsen, De Cuyper.
Red cards: none
Goals: 45' Jutglà (1-0), 72' Ilenikhena (1-1), 90' Vanaken (2-1).
