The flame immediately caught on in the Guldenspoor Stadium. A chance for Lamkel Zé, albeit offside, set the tone for the rest of the evening. Cercle woke up quickly and threatened a chance for Deman. Moments later, Sytsj had to save Kortrijk on the line.
That heroic act was quickly forgotten, because the same Sytsj let Popovic walk away when he headed the 0-1 hard against the ropes. It was clear that Cercle Brugge had more class in house, but Kortrijk got stuck in the visitors’ calves purely on willpower. The race was finished at breakneck speed.
Still, the chances remained mainly green-black. Ilic saved a shot from distance from Vanhoutte in two times and a header from the uncovered Daland went wide. Just before the break, Dessoleil intervened in the nick of time to get Denkey back.
Even after the break the pace remained very high. Custovic made some attacking substitutions, but it was defender Watanabe who was offered two great opportunities. He aimed them both straight at Cercle goalkeeper Majecki. On the other side, the recently replaced Gboho choked on the ball.
Kortrijk was rewarded for his efforts ten minutes before the end. Messaoudi took a long ball, spun free and curled the ball unstoppably into the bottom corner. Pumped up by that goal, Messaoudi lost sight of teammate Lamkel Zé a little later with a promising counterattack. Cercle also threatened with a header from Denkey, but it remained at 1-1.
Adnan Custovic won another point with Kortrijk. “It was a difficult game, against a team that constantly put us under pressure. In the first ten minutes we let ourselves be trumped and we conceded the goal.”
“After that we tried to come back. Especially the second half was better. We won more duels and we equalized.” Still, the coach was not completely satisfied. “Coming back at the end is good, but in our situation I would have preferred three points,” Custovic was honest.
There might have been more in it, provided a little more overview. “That’s football. Messaoudi’s qualities are speed and strength, but sometimes he has to see other solutions. But those things happen. He scored and I’m happy for him.”
The relegation topper against Ostend will follow next week. “That will be a completely different game. Today we couldn’t play football. Whoever won the duels would win the game. We each took on half.”
Miron Muslic and Cercle Brugge let a lead slip. “But I’m not disappointed at all,” the coach surprised. “I think we were dominant in the beginning. We came in 1-0 and could have killed the game with the 2-0. Kortrijk could equalize and in the last minute we still had a huge chance with Denkey. I think It’s a deserved point for both teams.”
Wasn’t Cercle too tired at the end because of the constant pressing? “I don’t think that was the problem. It was just a crazy game in the last fifteen minutes. Kortrijk took a lot of risks and kept three men up front. We made the wrong decision a few times. We were too selfish and tried from 25 meters . That could be better.”
