On Match Day 5 of the Champions' Playoffs, Club Brugge headed to KAA Gent's Planet Group Arena for the Battle of Flanders. The visitors took an early lead after a Vetlesen goal, and doubled that lead in a second half with lots of chances, a goal by the end of regular playing time through Tzolis.
The last Match Day came with retribution for Club, as the team followed up a bitter defeat at Union with a resounding win against KV Mechelen on Wednesday (6-1). With Union stuck at 0-0 against AA Gent, Club now drew closer again to the top of the table, reducing the gap to just two points. Needless to say that coach Ivan Leko decided to leave his Starting XI unchanged for the Battle of Flanders, with a midifield consisting of Stanković, Vetlesen and Vanaken and an attacking trio with Forbs, Tresoldi and Tzolis.
The Battle of Flanders is always a nervous affair, and it was the home team that tried to seize the initiative in the opening stages, resulting in a first opportunity for Kanga after five minutes, but Jackers had no problems with the shot. The next attack, this time from the visitors, proved more efficient: Vanaken setting up the attack, finding Vetlesen inside the box, controlling with his right to slam it in past Roef into the corner with his left (0-1). Five minutes later on, the Norwegian showed himself again on a pass from Tzolis, but this time his placed shot from outside the box got a deflection into corner. A little past the quarter-hour mark, Club pushed forward again, resulting in two fine opportunities. First Vanaken cleverly found Seys with a back heel. The youngster found Roef on his way, however, and shortly afterwards Gent's goalie again had to stand his ground as the ball got stuck inside the penalty area after a low cross from Forbs, with Vetlesen able to kick at goal from close range. Roef had an excellent reflex to tap the ball against the crossbar before it could be cleared in front of Vetlesen.
Halfway through the first half, the Buffaloes tried to respond through Dean, but his placed ball from an acute angle went far wide of target. A few minutes later, it was De Vlieger trying his luck on a dropped ball after a corner, but this time Tresoldi stood well in the way. The same De Vlieger was then able to try again after a corner kick, but this time his effort went half a meter over Jackers' cage. It was clear that the home team was finding its way back into the game, with some more opportunities through a series of corner kicks. Half an hour into the game, Van der Heyden deviated a corner with his head to find Volckaert free at the far post, but he was unable to control the ball sufficiently and kicked high over. It had been a while since Club's last threat, but after 35 minutes another smooth attack was set up through the left wing, passing the ball to the centre where Seys cleverly let it run, creating space for Vetlesen, but this time the Norwegian could not get a solid touch to the ball and so the danger was gone. A few minutes later Dean showed himself across, but Jackers went flat well in the corner to defuse the attempt from the second line.
The second half saw an industrious start by the visitors, as Tzolis quickly went for the goal line and cut free to deliver it in front of goal to find Vetlesen, but his header stranded straight in the arms of Roef. Moments later, Forbs rushed down his wing to deliver the perfect cross for Tresoldi. The latter was also able to frame his header from close range, but Roef again had some fine saves in store to tap the leather over his cage. The home team responded with an effort from Araújo, but his shot went far wide of Jackers' goal. Just before midway through the second half, a lightning-fast counterattack ended up with Tresoldi, who took a long time with the ball, but was eventually able to reach Forbs. The Portuguese winger remained cool and tipped it past Roef and into the net off the post. Unfortunately, however, VAR intervened as Forbs proved outside by the slightest of margins.
A few minutes after the disallowed goal, Club's second again seemed in the making as Tzolis first made the action and with his cross found the head of Tresoldi. He neatly aimed for the first post, but was unfortunate to see it actuall come off the post and back in the field. The visitors increasingly applied more pressure to get that crucial double lead, but Vetlesen was unlucky in his finishing after Forbs had set him up well inside the box. Bringing on Onyedika and Vermant for Vetlesen and Tresoldi, coach Leko added some fresh blood to his outfit, and in the minutes that followed, opportunities fell along both sides. First a shot by Stanković was blocked and on the opposite side Goore headed straight at Jackers. The one goal remained the difference between the two teams, so an equalizer could just as easily fall out of nowhere. And so it almost came about: after 80 minutes, Kadri received the ball outside the box after a corner kick, cut out two Club defenders before taking a shot from just outside the box, but fortunately for the hosts the ball splattered against the crossbar. Moments later Tzolis finally tucked it to bed as a fiery Forbs once again sailed past his opponent to produce a fine cross finding Tzolis, who couldn't miss from close range.
In six minutes of added time, no true chances followed, leaving only one conclusion: Club Brugge wins the Battle of Flanders and puts Union under pressure.
Champions' Play-offs - Match day 5
Audience: 20,000 - Planet Group Arena
Referee: Mr. Erik Lambrechts
KAA Gent: Davy Roef - Daiki Hashioka (75' Ibrahima Cissé), Matties Volckaert, Siebe Van der Heyden - Michał Skóraś (87' Momodou Sonko), Leonardo Lopes (75' Abdelkahar Kadri), Tibe De Vlieger, Hyun-seok Hong (62' Hyllarion Goore), Tiago Araújo - Max Dean, Wilfried Kanga.
Bench: Kjell Peersman, Bas Evers, Aimé Omgba, Hatim Es-Saoubi, Momodou Sonko, Atsuki Ito, Jean-Kévin Duverne, Abdelkahar Kadri, Hyllarion Goore, Hannes Vernemmen, Ibrahima Cissé.
Coach: Rik De Mil.
Club Brugge: Nordin Jackers - Hugo Siquet (85' Bjorn Meijer), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Joaquin Seys (85' Jorne Spileers) - Aleksandar Stanković, Hugo Vetlesen (73' Raphael Onyedika), Hans Vanaken - Carlos Forbs (90+1' Cisse Sandra), Nicolò Tresoldi (73' Romeo Vermant), Christos Tzolis.
Bench: Dani van den Heuvel, Bjorn Meijer, Jorne Spileers, Raphael Onyedika, Cisse Sandra, Lynnt Audoor, Mamadou Diakhon, Romeo Vermant, Gustaf Nilsson.
Coach: Ivan Leko.
Yellow: De Vlieger, Araújo
Red: None
Goals: 4' Vetlesen (0-1), 89' Tzolis (0-2)