Anderlecht missed their return from the break. For Hubert’s first as an “official” T1, the Mauves offered their first victory at Beerschot.
On paper, David Hubert had an “official” first as T1 among the easiest possible: traveling to the bottom of the league, who has not yet won a single championship match this season. But an international truce can change many things. Was it the Anderlecht dynamic which was broken, or Beerschot which took advantage of these two weeks?
The fact remains that after 45 minutes, the Rats are leading the score, and it is not stolen… marked a first quarter of an hour outrageously to the advantage of the Mauve & Blanc. Nick Shinton had to perform a miracle in front of Leander Dendoncker (4th), a shot from Leoni was saved on the line (7th) and we say to ourselves that Number 13 is going to experience yet another complicated match.
The deadly Beerschot against
But coincidence or not, after the 13th minute which saw Kiel finally start to sing (an action launched by the supporters to demonstrate their discontent), Beerschot regained its footing. Against, of course, and Thibaut Verlinden is a devil in this exercise, first forcing Leoni to intervene at the last minute (18th). After a good opening from Reyners, he tumbles again a few minutes later and his shot crashes into the post of a petrified Coosemans (21st).
Quite predictable in the game with Edozie and Verschaeren mobile but uninspired, Anderlecht only really creates danger from a standstill: Zanka in turn finds the target with his header (27th). This would have saved the match for the Dane, who was still not very reassuring… and who was trapped shortly after.
After a magnificent counter sequence, Marwan Al Sahafi fixes Zanka and hits from a tight angle to open the scoring (30th, 1-0). Beerschot was deadly against an Anderlecht defense without Vertonghen and Simic; N’diaye still has to come back narrowly to avoid the break (36th).
Al-Sahafi puts on a show
Returning from the locker room, the RSCA has visibly come to its senses and pushes immediately: in the 47th minute, Mario Stroeykens obtains a fairly light, but real, penalty that Kasper Dolberg transforms (1-1). This same Dolberg appears to be broken in a much clearer manner a few minutes later, this time without the referee blowing his whistle.
Anderlehct seems to be gaining the upper hand, gets more and more mistakes and well-placed free kicks… but still lacks precision in the last gesture, like when Verschaeren attempts a completely missed lob (61st) or when Dolberg hits wide on the above once against Shinton (63rd). Ex-Mauve Antoine Colassin gets into the game: his first touch of the ball is a shot just wide (66th).
His second… is a decisive pass: on a counter from a Beerschot who has regained his calm, Marwan Al-Sahafi reviews almost the entire defense. Zanka emerges as a last resort, but Colassin recovers and finds Al-Sahafi in a moment; the Saudi offers himself a resounding double (70th, 2-1).
Amuzu comes into play to dynamite the Antwerp defense, but fails to worry Shinton, who however still has to work in front of Dreyer who has also returned to the other flank (77th). The RSCA is pushing, but looks completely cooked mentally and physically in the face of Rats starved to death, like Captain Matthys who took out a cross from Dreyer while giving his all (87th). Kiel explodes after 6 endless minutes of stoppage in play: Beerschot has its first victory, even if there is still work to get out of the red zone.
