Club Brugge supporters complained on social media. They felt that they had certainly deserved a penalty for a few questionable errors in the box, but ref Lawrence Visser always consulted the VAR and he saw no problem with it.
There was a phase with Burgess and Nilsson where the Union defender's hand went against the Swede's face and Khalaili had also brought down Tzolis once, but each time the VAR found that nothing was wrong.
The question was also asked afterwards to Hans Vanaken and he clearly had doubts. “Maybe yes, but as a Club Brugge player I of course think so,” he laughed. “But the VAR will have checked it.”
By the way, Vanaken was correct in his analysis. “We fought back strongly after being double down, and that is certainly a positive point to take away from this match. The most important thing is that we continued to believe in ourselves, even after that own goal.”
“That paid off in the end. Union didn't create many chances, although we have to admit that Mignolet made a great save before half-time. Their lead came from a counter.”
“But after the break we made tactical adjustments. With Jutgla added, we played with two strikers, and that helped us turn the tide.”
Trainer Nicky Hayen even wanted to do that before the 2-0. “I already had doubts about it, but Union's double lead made the decision easy. Shouldn't I have played with two strikers earlier? It's easy to say in retrospect, it could just as well turn out wrong.”
Vanaken was also involved in saving the 3-2. He cleared the ball off the line after Mignolet's wonderful save. “It was also Mignolet's credit, because the rescue was his,” Vanaken said. “Luckily the ball didn't go in in the end.”
