Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- National champions Club Brugge won the top match of the twelfth match day in the Jupiler Pro League on Sunday evening with 0-1 (half-time: 0-0) on a visit to RSC Anderlecht. Casper Nielsen scored the only goal of the game after 69 minutes. Club defender Abakar Sylla was ruled out deep in added time after a foul on Mario Stroeykens.
After an attractive first half, especially the visitors from Bruges, where Noa Lang had not even made the selection, were happy with the 0-0 half-time score. After all, the best chances had been for Anderlecht, which, in contrast to previous matches, now put a lot of grinta on the mat. Face to face with Simon Mignolet, however, Fabio Silva could not finish and if the Bruges goalkeeper seemed beaten, there was the post that saved the blue-black. That was the case with an attempt by Lucas Stassin, the son of former Anderlecht defender Stéphane Stassin, who was surprisingly kicked off by Felice Mazzu.
After the break, the reigning national champion immediately changed that. Ferran Jutgla put his striker Kamal Sowah alone in front of Hendrik Van Crombrugge with a heel, but the 22-year-old Ghanaian could not decide. Not much later, Tajon Buchanan squandered an excellent opportunity on a corner by heading wide of goal.
But it was clear that the Bruges engine had started and Van Crombrugge had to make an excellent save to whip Jutgla’s place ball, again in excellent form, out of goal. It was a stay of execution. After a wide-spread attack on the right, Hans Vanaken kept the overview in the sixteenth. The Red Devil found Casper Nielsen in front of goal and the midfielder who had come over from Union put the 0-1 on the scoreboard, with twenty minutes to go.
Defence against Brussels siege
That Mignolet is currently almost unbeatable, he proved once again by having a world save ten minutes before the end after a corner kick on a header from close range from Wesley Hoedt. Moments later, the reserve goalkeeper of the Red Devils was ready for a surprising swipe by Yari Verschaeren. He also almost miraculously kept an attempt by Silva out of his goal, so that the 0-1 remained on the board despite the Brussels siege.
With 25 points, Club remains in third place, six points behind the new competition leader Racing Genk. The Limburgers took over the lead from Antwerp, which went down with heavy 3-0 figures at Standard on Sunday afternoon. Anderlecht already has six league defeats and does not go further than the ninth place shared with STVV, with sixteen points. In the Conference League, the Purple & White has not gone further than 1 out of 9 in recent weeks.
