With the first of two clashes between the top two of the Champions' Playoffs , Club Brugge headed to the Duden parc to take up the gauntlet with leaders Union. Club took the lead fifteen minutes in, courtesy of a header by Mechele, but Union equalized moments later through Biondic. In the second half, the home team increased the pressure, eventually leading to Zeneli's winning goal (2-1).
A hard-fought 1-2 victory at Sint-Truiden for Club last weekend, so coach Ivan Leko had little reason to shake up his starting line-up. Nevertheless, three substitutions were made for the match against Union: Sabbe's injury saw him replaced by Meijer, moving Seys to right back. Perhaps the biggest surprise was in midfield, where Vanaken was absent: Club's captain was not fully fit, starting from the bench, giving way to Vetlesen. Finally, in attack, Vermant was opted for and so Tresoldi also had to content himself with a substitute role.
Those who expected a slow start with an elaborate study round were wrong, as already after two minutes Jackers was put to the test. Meijer slipped, leaving Khalaili the time and space to try his luck, but the Bruges goalie reacted alertly to parry the shot. Moments later, Club got away well as Rodríguez headed a cross from Khalaili into the far corner, but VAR had detected offside, disallowing the goal. On the quarter hour, Blue & Black responded wisely as Tzolis cut a corner kick well and at the first zone Mechele extended the ball with his head towards goal where Scherpen couldn't get a fine touch to it scrambling it into goal (0-1).
A little over halfway through, Seys played the ball nicely centrally to Vetlesen and the Norwegian midfielder was able to surge into the Union half of the pitch. Tzolis followed up well, but the Norwegian decided to go for his own luck with a shot that was unable to sufficiently worry Scherpen. Union still had the better of the game, and on the half-hour mark, the score was in balance again after a swift Union counter as Khalaili sent a sharp pass to find Biondic on the left. The latter cut in deftly and finely put it past Jackers into the far corner. A few minutes later the home team created another threat as Rodríguez snatched the ball from Mechele, but fortunately his shot went wide. The Ecuadorian striker remained the most dangerous man though, as another effort ended up in Jackers' hands from a sharp angle.
The same 22 names for the second half and this time it was Club that came out of the locker room best. Vetlesen laid the ball aside just outside the sixteen for Tzolis, who immediately went for goal, but his effort was too central and posed no problem for Scherpen. A few minutes later Forbs put himself through in the sixteen, but his shot from a sharp angle was ultimately not hard enough to outsmart Union's goalie. The threat kept coming from the visitors now, but Seys failed to frame his shot on a dropped ball from further afar. Shortly thereafter it was Tzolis' turn again, but this time a Union defender got in the way of the Greek's shot. The home team reacted shortly after, but fortunately Jackers was able to get a hand to a high header by Sykes flying towards the far post.
Midway through the second half, Union started taking control of the game more and more, resulting mainly in a bunch of crosses into the box, but without really calling Jackers into action. Club started having trouble getting out from under the pressure and after eighty minutes Union saw its efforts rewarded. Khalaili pushing through on his wing and playing it neatly in the way of an infiltrating Zeneli, slamming in the 2-1 past Jackers. Coach Leko tried to change things up by bringing in Tresoldi, Nilsson and Diakhon, and at the end of regular playing time, the equalizer was just around the corner via a close-range header by Stanković, but Scherpen made an ultimate save to prevent the goal. In the retrieval, Vanaken then kicked high over.
Finally, five minutes were added, and Club once again tried to go all out, resulting in some dangerous crosses, but unfortunately the equalizer did not follow. An excellent job for Union leaving Club disheartened.
Champions' Play-offs - Match Day 3
Audience: 9,000 - Stade Joseph Marien
Referee: Mr. Lawrence Visser
Union Saint-Gilloise: Kjell Scherpen - Kevin Mac Allister, Christian Burgess, Ross Sykes - Anan Khalaili, Adem Zorgane, Kamiel Van De Perre (86' Ivan Pavlic), Anouar Ait El Hadj (64' Besfort Zeneli), Guilherme Smith - Mateo Biondic (90+5' Massiré Sylla), Kevin Rodríguez (86' Mohammed Fuseini).
Bench: Vic Chambaere, Jens Teunckens, Massiré Sylla, Guillaume François, Ivan Pavlic, Louis Patris, Ousseynou Niang, Mohammed Fuseini, Raul Florucz, Besfort Zeneli.
Coach: David Hubert.
Club Brugge: Nordin Jackers - Joaquin Seys (90' Gustaf Nilsson), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Bjorn Meijer (84' Hugo Siquet) - Aleksandar Stanković, Raphael Onyedika (69' Hans Vanaken), Hugo Vetlesen (84' Nicolò Tresoldi) - Carlos Forbs (90' Mamadou Diakhon), Romeo Vermant, Christos Tzolis.
Bench: Dani van den Heuvel, Jorne Spileers, Hugo Siquet, Cisse Sandra, Shandre Campbell, Hans Vanaken, Mamadou Diakhon, Nicolò Tresoldi, Gustaf Nilsson.
Coach: Ivan Leko.
Yellow: Sykes, Vetlesen, Zorgane, Forbs, Vermant, Khalaili, Ordóñez, Stanković
Red: none
Goals: 15' Mechele (0-1), 29' Biondic (1-1), 81' Zeneli (2-1)