The struggles continued for Bryan Reynolds and Westerlo as they fell to Cercle Brugge to keep near the basement of the Belgian Pro League standings, while Sam Vines scored before going off injured as Royal Antwerp shared the points with Union Saint-Gilloise.
Cercle Brugge 2-1 Westerlo
It was another bad day at the office for Westerlo and their American defender, Bryan Reynolds when they traveled to the Venice of the North to take on Cercle Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Saturday evening. Try as they may, the late goal from Matija Frigan just wasn’t enough to get anything out of the game, so Westerlo will go into the international break still without a Pro League win after five tries.
The visitors competed well in the first half and thought that they would take a scoreless tie into the locker room at halftime but in the 47th minute Hugo Siquet sent the ball into the box and Kevin Denkey headed it into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Twenty-five minutes after the re-start Cercle put the game to bed with Denkey’s second of the game. Croatian striker Frigan struck back in the 93rd minute but as they say, “too little too late” for it to make any difference.
After the international break, Reynolds will host Sam Vines and Royal Antwerp.
Mechelen 1-0 Eupen
Gabriel Slonina was between the sticks for Eupen when they traveled to Mechelen on Saturday night. After back-to-back victories, Eupen went down by a goal to none at Stadion Achter de Kazerne.
The Chelsea loanee made five saves but the one that got away came with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Rafik Belghali sent the ball into the box for Lion Lauberbach who headed it into the bottom left corner, just beating Slonina.
After the international break, the Pandas will host Marlon Fossey and Standard Liege.
Union Saint-Gilloise 2-2 Royal Antwerp
Sam Vines scored a goal for Antwerp, but his day ended early as he left the game with an injury as the defending champions shared the points with Union Saint-Gilloise at Stade Joseph Marien.
The hosts were gifted a penalty just a few minutes into the contest when Soumaula Kouliblay tripped up Casper Terho in the 18-yard box. Dennis Eckert then stepped up to convert the spot-kick in the fourth minute.
Antwerp would level the score in the 23rd minute when they dispossessed USG of the ball in their own end, leading Jelle Bataille to charge down the right side with the ball and cross it into the center. After a scramble, in which the ball was then cleared from the box, the American left-back came in to fire a long-range shot into the back of the net.
Despite putting in a quality goal, the 24-year-old’s day would end as he was subbed out for a suspected injury.
That did not stop Antwerp as they went on to take the lead in the 44th minute. Michel Balikwisha’s corner kick would find Zeno van den Bosch who headed into the path of Jurgen Ekkelenkamp to slot home.
The champions should have been on their way to a win, but they would be done in by another penalty by the referee as he judged that Mandela Keita’s challenge on Charles Vanhoutte was severe enough for him to point to the spot. Gustaf Nilsson took the spot-kick duties this time and converted in the 87th minute to guarantee USG a share of the points.
Genk 1-1 Anderlecht
It was late drama, very late drama in this game as Genk scored a 97th-minute equalizer to rescue a point against Anderlecht at the Cegeka Arena.
Mark McKenzie was in his usual starting position and played 85 minutes as the Smurfs had to play with 10 men for the majority of the game when Christopher Bansu Baah was shown a second yellow card following a tackle on Anderlecht’s Matias Galarza.
The first half would end scoreless, but the second would make up for it.
The visitors struck in the 71st minute to break the scoreless deadlock when Moussa Ndiaye set up his teammate Francis Amuzu to fire in a blistering shot from distance. Genk goalkeeper Maarten Vandevordt could only flail at the ball as it bulged the back of the net.
However, the hosts would have the last word in the game as it went into stoppage time when Daniel Munoz’s cross into the area found Toluwalase Arokodare to head home from close range.
A well-deserved point for Genk as they will rest up before they head on the road to face Union Saint-Gilloise.
Notes
Marlon Fossey started on the bench but came on to play the final 23 minutes for Standard Liege in their 1-1 draw with Molenbeek.
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