Last season, this Cercle de Bruges – La Gantoise was a duel between two candidates for Playoffs 1. But this evening, that was not really noticed.
For the second time in four days, Ghent was going to the Jan Breydelstasion this evening. But after slapping Club Bruges (2-4), the Buffalos bit the dust against Cercle. The meeting was initially scheduled for the fifth day but was postponed to allow the two teams to prepare for their European play-off.
On the Cercle side, sick with only 4 points out of 21, we note the presence of scorer Kevin Denkey on the bench. The first half did not unleash the crowds, giving rise to no clear chances.
At the start of the second half, Davy Roef warmed his gloves by repelling a rebound from Felipe Augusto, before the match plunged back into lethargy. The stadium woke up to a cover from Atsuki Ito on the bar. 0-0 approaching the last quarter of an hour: as is often the case in these cases, one goal was enough to decide the outcome of the match.
Denkey in supersub mode
And he fell on the Cercle side: on a high recovery, Denkey responded to Miron Muslic by taking a cross from the left to open the score. The Togolese even ended up scoring a second in stoppage time to kill any suspense despite Andri Gudjohnsen’s reduction in the score at the end of a more lively last quarter of an hour (2-1).
Second victory of the season for the Circle in the championship, however, the Groen en Zwart remain penultimate. For its part, La Gantoise remains six points behind Genk after delivering a fairly dismal match.
