On matchday 3 of the Jupiler Pro League, Blauw-Zwart travelled to the East Cantons to take on Eupen. Club had already raced into a 0-3 lead at the break, through Skov Olsen, Zinckernagel and Buchanan, before Skov Olsen and Zinckernagel completed their brace in the second half. Club start the league with seven points out of a possible nine.
After Thursday's convincing win against Icelandic outfit Akureyri, coach Deila had little reasons to make a lot of changes to his starting line-up. Zinckernagel, who made his debut on Thursday, started the game instead of Nusa, who had to settle for the substitutes' bench.
Club started the afternoon on the front foot and saw a Zinckernagel free-kick just evade Thiago in front of goal, before Lambert hacked down Vanaken inside the penalty area after only five minutes. Referee D'Hondt pointed to the spot, Skov Olsen drilled the penalty against the back of the net. Fifteen minutes into the game Thiago breathed a sigh of relief when he almost steered a corner from the hosts past his own goalkeeper - the ball flew wide of the far post. A short while later Club put together a swift attacking move, which ended with Zinckernagel firing at goal. His shot took a deflection on Paeshuyse before the ball looped over Slonina midway the first half. Zinckernagel's first goal for Club!
Club didn't rest on their laurels and continued to dominate the match, but Mechele headed De Cuyper's corner over the crossbar. Just past the half-hour mark Eupen had a huge chance to half the deficit when Nuhu did well to create space at the edge of the area. He looked up and curled the ball towards the far corner, only to see Mignolet tip it away against the post. Almost immediately afterwards Club increased their lead to three. This time De Cuyper's corner kick was met by Buchanan, who was lurking at the back post to head home. Moments before the half-time whistle, Skov Olsen cut inside from the right but his left-footed strike was saved by Slonina so it remained 0-3 at the break.
No changes at either side at the start of the second half with Eupen being more lively, but without creating any goal-bound threat. In fact it was Blauw-Zwart with a first attempt after ten minutes when Skov Olsen hammered a loose ball over the crossbar. But five minutes later the Denmark international put the game to bed with his second of the afternoon. And what a goal it was! Skov Olsen's left-footed rasping drive from 18 meters out left Slonina helpless.
Blauw-Zwart wanted more and just four minutes later Zinckernagel completed his brace. Vanaken found the Dane at the far post with a brilliant pass and Zinckernagel bundled it over the line acrobatically. Blauw-Zwart remained the dominating side, even after making a couple of substituations. Skov Olsen latched onto a through ball and whipped in a good cross for Yaremchuk, but the Ukrainian saw his header stopped by Slonina with a good reflex save. When De Cuyper linked up with Sabbe, the latter headed the cross just wide of the target.
There were no more goals in the final quarter of the match and so Club headed home with a 5-0 win on the road. Again five goals, after Thursday's 5-1 win in the Conference League 3rd qualifying round. Onto next Thursday for the return game against Akureyri.
Jupiler Pro League – Matchday 3
Attendance: 8.363 – Kehrwegstadion
Referee: Lothar D’Hondt
KAS Eupen: Gabriel Slonina – Gary Magnée, Rune Paeshuyse, Victor Pálsson, Jason Davidson, Yentl Van Genechten (85’ Isaac Christie-Davies) - Brandon Baiye (69’ Teddy Alloh), Boris Lambert, Jérôme Déom – Isaac Nuhu, Regan Charles-Cook.
Bench: Tom Roufosse, Abdul Nurudeen, Teddy Alloh, Aleksandr Filin, Isaac Christie-Davies, Jan Král, Amadou Keita.
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt.
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet - Tajon Buchanan (70’ Kyriani Sabbe), Brandon Mechele, Jorne Spileers, Maxim De Cuyper - Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken, Hugo Vetlesen (64’ Casper Nielsen) - Andreas Skov Olsen, Igor Thiago (64’ Roman Yaremchuk), Philip Zinckernagel (70’ Michal Skóras).
Bench: Nordin Jackers, Kiany Vroman, Joel Ordóñez, Kyriani Sabbe, Casper Nielsen, Michal Skóras, Antonio Nusa, Roman Yaremchuk.
Coach: Ronny Deila.
Yellow cards: Mechele, Yaremchuk
Red cards: none
Goals: 6’ Skov Olsen (0-1), 17’ Zinckernagel (0-2), 29’ Buchanan (0-3), 62’ Skov Olsen (0-4), 66’ Zinckernagel (0-5)