Mechelen secures against Kortrijk, first success in 2023 for the Cercle in Ostend

On the restart, Mechelen was looking for itself and Kortrijk took the opportunity to test Coucke, who was surprised by a strike from Abdelkahar Kadri (58th, 2-2). Mechelen did not give up and after Hairemans forgot to shoot (67th) and Storm sent the ball to the post (72nd), Julien Ngoy, who came on in place of Mrabti (69th), scored the winning goal (73rd, 3-2).

At the Diaz Arena, the duel between Ostend and Cercle pitted two teams against each other, who had not yet won a match in 2023. At the Kustboys, Ivan Durdov celebrated his first start while Thierry Ambrose, Alfons Amade and Brecht Capon were making their return to the base XI. Despite the withdrawals of Radoslaw Majecki and Senna Miangue, the Cercle went on the attack thanks in particular to a stirring Hugo Siquet, on loan from Fribourg. It was also on a ball behind the Ostend defense of the ex-Standardman that Ayase Ueda opened the scoring (24th, 0-1).

With both teams relying on caution above all, the start of the second half was not very enthusiastic until the VAR signaled to the referee a foul by Siquet on Matam Ndicka and Lawrence Visser awarded a penalty transformed by Ambrose after seeing the images (64th, 1-1). The Cercle was nowhere when Dino Hotic gave them the victory three minutes after getting into the game (90th + 1, 1-2).