Antwerp lost 2-1 in Sint-Truiden on Matchday 15 on Sunday. With this success signed Daichi Hayashi (31st) and Aboubakary Koita (37th), the Canaries are 10th (21 points). Antwerp, which reduced the score by Aly Samatta (82nd), remains second with 27 points four lengths from Union Saint-Gilloise expected at 6.30pm in Ostend.
Bernd Hollerbach, who had to do without the suspended Robert Bauer, found Mory Konaté and preferred Hayashi to Taichi Hara. Brian Priske made room in his selection for Birger Verstraete, Alhassan Yusuf and Michelangelo Balikwisha and left Pieter Gerkens, Pierre Dwomoh and Aly Samatta on the bench. The Antwerp people took possession of the ball in particular thanks to Radja Naiggolan, author of the first shot on target (5th). But Michael Frey did not heal his last pass for Balikwisha (7th) and Manuel Benson missed a recovery when he had been well served on his left foot (9th). On the other hand, on a good service from the right of Steve De Ridder, Hayashi scored his second goal of the season (31st, 1-0).
Antwerp did not improve the quality of its game and on a loss of ball from Yusuf, Koita got rid of Ritchie de Laet and Sam Vines to double the Canaries’ lead (37th, 2-0).
On resumption, Sint-Truiden did not curl up in defense and its Japanese attackers caused a lot of trouble for the opposing defense. However, it was Koita who passed close to the third goal but Abdoulaye Seck intervened in extremis while Jean Butez was beaten (57th). Seeing that it could not work like that, the Antwerp coach made several changes including that of Balikwisha for Samatta (63rd). A good choice on the part of the German technician since the Tanzanian striker reduced the delay of his own but Antwerp did not snatch a point despite his 62% possession of the ball.
