Cercle Brugge went down with a lot of confidence to Anderlecht, which had a tough European match ahead of them. However, there was little sign of that, because almost from kick-off the Purple & White took matters into their own hands. Warleson stopped Dreyer, but the early goal fell anyway. Slimani headed in with a powerful neck blow.
That was the start of a siege of the Cercle target. The visitors were played out of context time and time again and Warleson was constantly bombarded by Verschaeren, Dreyer and Slimani. It was as if the devil was involved, because every time things went wrong for Anderlecht. Either Warleson was there with a body part, or the finish was lousy.
After the break, the festival of opportunities continued as usual. The lidded Warleson was again the spoilsport, this time when Dreyer appeared alone in front of him after a delicious attack. A little later, the Brazilian was helped by the crossbar. Slimani also couldn’t finish face to face with Warleson.
An unusually weak Cercle therefore remained in the game. Before the break, Ueda had already warned the wasteful Anderlecht, after that it was the turn of his striker brother Denkey. He aimed an open chance against the post. It wasn’t until the very end that the home team got certainty about the victory. The ball ended up at Slimani through Popovic’s bottom. This time the Algerian did not miss.
In the end, the frustration still bubbled up at Denkey, who took the red for a stamp on Vertonghen’s foot. Anderlecht is breathing down the neck of Cercle Brugge thanks to the victory. The battle for the places in the Europe Play-offs will be very exciting.
Jan Vertonghen was satisfied with Anderlecht’s performance. “We were here to fight for each other. Ghent was our weakest match in terms of intensity. We rectified that against Villarreal and again today. We showed that there is a team. This is good for the group feeling.”
“Cercle is a very difficult team to play against. They made it very difficult for us, and that is their merit. We just needed that 2-0.” It often went wrong there. What was that about? “That’s not my fault, you have to ask the attackers,” laughed Vertonghen. “They may need to calm down a bit, but you also need some luck.”
Boris Popovic had a slightly different analysis of the match. “It’s a pity that we conceded an early goal against a corner. After that we had many opportunities, even after the break, but we couldn’t finish them. And then they were lucky that the ball deviated and eventually ended up in goal.”
The defender of Cercle Brugge was of course disappointed. “We wanted to get a good result here, but it’s not over yet. We’re going to fight to stay in the top eight. We’re the team that covers the most kilometers. Next week we’re going to give everything against Genk at home.”
