Man of the match: Actually, everyone at Cercle was good, with no clear best. That’s why some attention for trainer Miron Muslic. The team delivered impressive performances throughout the season, with beautiful and attractive football. Watch and learn, fellow coaches.
A nod to Arnaud Bodart is also in order. The keeper received four tonight, but stopped a multiple of them.
Key moment: From the first seconds it was clear that there was only one team that is not yet under a palm tree in the head.
Remarkable: Standard is now 2 out of 15 these play-offs, has not won once. If it fails to pick up anything against Ghent next week (gasp), it will be the first time ever that the Liège team has not won a single match during the play-offs. A sad record.
No matches with real commitment today, but Cercle clearly wanted nothing to do with that. As always this season, it chose to go for outclassing, outperforming, overpowering from the first minute with endless pressure and speed.
That was the right choice against Rouches who were caught between mourning and vacation. In the first ten minutes, the home team had nothing to lose and Bodart had to intervene again and again. At the third chance, after barely seven minutes, Marcelin pushed the ball against the nets.
Bodart ended up with five saves in the first half, including a clumsy Bokadi who has to apologize. After 25 minutes, the Bruges storm finally subsided.
The home fans promised “traitor” Deila appropriate treatment with tifos and chants, and thus took the team in tow. Canak regularly showed his skills together with Balikwisha, but still had to go into halftime without a goal. Only once did Majecki really have to intervene, on a weak shot from the stabbed Ohio.
The coffee and tea at Cercle are stronger than at Standard, because even after the break, green-black (today in white) just seemed supercharged.
After five minutes that meant a second goal, this time for Kevin Denkey. He still had a lot of work to do when taking on the half moon, but when Dussenne naively gets out like a student, there was plenty of room for drag and shot
Ueda, who is chasing the status of top scorer (currently still in the hands of Cuypers), got his 22nd on a tray, but shot high over. Ten minutes later, Abu Francis showed how it should be done, with a wonderful pass from Gboho and a beautifully placed shot, the visitors deepened the lead out.
For the home team it was just a countdown, but Cercle did not stop, this time with Ayase Ueda. He took over after Standard did not clear a free kick from Deman enough, and tested the handles of the nets at the home team. Conclusion: stronger than the defense before it.
Standard was a spinning, rudderless object before Deila came aboard. From the initial observations, the pure energy and fire of Liège seems to be taking over again, with no Klopp-like foreman to channel. For Cercle, efficiency and directness have become second nature.
Noë Dussenne, after his last home game for Standard: “Not the way I wanted to leave here, 0-4 is tough. Cercle was better than us, we were just not at the level. For me and Cimi (rot, ed.) The last match, with good but also difficult moments for us in those four years. The audience that thanks me so much, that warms the heart.”
Miron Muslic (Cercle): “It’s great that we finish in the top 6. It doesn’t happen often for me, but I’m speechless with the work we’ve done in the last nine months. We started in danger of relegation, and now we’ve climbed to this place. Unbelievable.”
Geoffrey Vallenne (Standard): “In all areas, in all statistics, Cercle was better today. We have to congratulate them for that. It was the defenders at the back who played together for a whole season, so it’s about being able to mobilize the troops for the next match.”
2023-05-27 21:14:00
#Gretig #Cercle #Bruges #mercy #Standard #holiday #mode #Jupiler #Pro #League
