Le Cercle, which was celebrating its 125th anniversary at home, conceded the first big chance of the game. After 15 minutes, Vincent Janssen shot with power, without being precise enough to avoid Warleson. The Bruges then gradually deprived the Great Old of the ball and were dangerous at the end of the first period but Kevin Denkey (39th) then Hannes Van der Bruggen (45th) lacked precision at the finish
No points, no clean sheets and no goals in the playoffs: what's wrong with Antwerp?
Returning from the locker room, the two teams continued to lack efficiency: Alan Minda (51st) shot wide, Jelle Bataille was blocked (54th), a shot from Denkey was too soft (59th) and Warleson is illustrated by stopping an attempt by Ejuke (61st). The same Ejuke finally allowed Antwerp to find the opening. The Nigerian asked for the ball on a two-man corner and slalomed to the entrance to the small rectangle. Off-center to the right, he fired hard on the ground to score (66th). Starting behind the defense, Michel-Ange Balikwisha narrowly missed finding the top corner and the break in stride (72nd). Cercle then got their foot back on the ball but failed to create any sharp chances in the Antwerp block and the score remained unchanged.
The three points allow Antwerp, 6th, to return to the level of Cercle, 5th: the two teams have 29 points. The 4th day of the Champions Playoffs ends at 6:30 p.m. with Union-Club Bruges.
