St. Gallen completely failed to return to European football after eleven years.
Gary Magnee (center) from Bruges celebrates the victory over St. Gallen with his colleagues on Thursday.
Olivier Matthys / EPA
(sda) St. Gallen completely failed to return to European football after eleven years. The Eastern Swiss conceded a 2:6 at the start of the Conference League at Cercle Bruges.
Was it teaching money? Or an opponent who surprisingly played with Captain Thibo Somers, who was reported injured the day before, and was better than expected? The fact is: Lawrence had to reach behind Ati Zigi three times in the first 43 minutes and three more times in the second half. From the visitors’ point of view, the score at half-time was 0:5 shots on goal, and the final result after 90 minutes was 2:6.
Three of the six goals were scored by Bruges striker Kévin Denkey. The 23-year-old Togolese, who scored 74 to 76 in his 140th game for the club and also set up two, needed two touches of the ball to make it 2-0 in the 25th minute and to make it 3-0 in the 43rd minute a. He scored the 4-0 after the break from the penalty point after a foul by Abdoulaye Diaby.
Denkey’s strike partner made it 1-0 in the 3rd minute with a shot from the underside of the crossbar – after a nice combination game with Denkey and exemplary ball processing before the end. Goals 5 and 6 for the home team were scored by Gary Magnée. His 5:1 was a dream goal from the corner of the penalty area, the 6:1 one with the heel of an indirect free kick.
While the hosts converted their first four good chances into three goals, St. Gallen’s Willem Geubbels missed a promising counterattack (9th minute) and Lukas Görtler and Chadrac Akolo missed three goals in quick succession (14th/15th/17th minute). .), when the game could have been steered in other directions. The home team, which started the season poorly with 17 goals conceded and 8 points from 9 games, was quite vulnerable defensively. Under the eyes of around 1,500 St. Gallen fans traveling with them, Kevin Csoboth (1:4 in the 58th minute) and Felix Mambimbi (2:6 in the 81st minute) ultimately at least made the result cosmetic.
If St. Gallen wants to assert itself in the 36-team league phase of the Conference League, coach Enrico Maassen’s team has to learn. The next opponent is AC Fiorentina in Kybunpark on October 24th.
