Union has now also suffered a painful defeat against Cercle Brugge. After just six minutes, the competition leader was 0-2 behind, and the people of Bruges eventually won 2-3. Union starts the play-offs with two defeats and could soon lose its leading position if Anderlecht picks something up on the Club Brugge field.
Union absolutely wanted to bounce back after the false start to the play-offs in Genk. With a home match against Cercle – on paper the least opponent in the Champions’ play-offs – there were certainly opportunities to flush out that painful defeat, but at Union they now also realize that you cannot simply put Cercle aside. Union certainly had to do it without a suspended Burgess – or at least that’s what they thought at Union. Vanhoutte again took his place in the three-man defense.
The match in the Dudenpark absolutely did not need a study round. After just six minutes the nets trembled twice, and twice Cercle was actually allowed to celebrate. First, Vanhoutte and Sadiki were too easily defeated, allowing Minda to use the ball in goal, and barely a minute later Denkey was also able to score far too easily after a sharp counter.
At Union they didn’t know what was happening. Winning against Cercle was a must, but an early 0-2 deficit obviously didn’t help. And actually it could have gone differently: between the two goals, Nilsson had a double chance to score the equalizer, but twice Warleson stood firm. Just to say that the opening phase did not bore us.
Union realized that it had to step up a few notches to avoid losing points again. Cercle crawled back and played from within the organization, and it did extremely well. Union searched, but found hardly any holes. Sadiki was able to take a swing, but once again Warleson was alert to prevent worse.
Nilsson gives hope
We seemed to go into halftime with a 0-2 score, until Lapoussin was tapped by Utkus in the box in added time. Boterberg pointed to the spot, Nilsson neatly converted the penalty. 1-2, a lifeline for Union.
Even after the break, Union continued to look for holes in the Bruges defense. Puertas quickly came close to the equalizer, but Warleson – again he – boxed the Spanish Swiss’ free kick out of his goal.
Union continued to play forward with good intentions, but creating chances was not particularly easy. Muslic had positioned his troops well, Union cut his teeth. The goal was scored just over twenty minutes before the end, but on the other side: Cercle countered again very quickly and Minda put it back perfectly to Somers who scored the 1-3 goal.
ramp day
A new blow that Union could not overcome, Dennis Eckert Ayensa’s 2-3 in added time came too late. We can speak of a complete disaster day for the people of Brussels, because there was also a heavy cold shower next to the field just before kick-off. Burgess – normally suspended due to his red card last week – ultimately turned out to be eligible to play for the match against Cercle because the prosecutor appealed against the decision of the Disciplinary Committee on Sunday. At Union they were not informed: an unlikely blunder.
With a zero out of six, Union has to hope that Anderlecht will lose against Club Brugge tonight. Otherwise, Union will lose its leadership position to the purple and white.
