On match day 5 in the League Phase of the UEFA Champions League, Club Brugge headed to Lisbon to take on Sporting CP. Halfway through the first half, Quenda opened the scoring for the home team and on the half-hour Suárez made sure the score was 2-0. In the second half, Trincão also picked up a goal and so the Brugge side eventually went down 3-0 in Lisbon.
Last Saturday, Blauw-Zwart won with the smallest difference at home against Charleroi. Consequently, coach Nicky Hayen had little reason to make many changes to his starting line-up and that did not happen. Only two substitutions were made, one in defense and one in the offensive compartment. Ordóñez took his place next to Mechele and in the striker's box, Vermant was chosen this time. Thus, Spileers and Tresoldi had to make peace with a place on the bench.
It was the home team that immediately claimed the ball at the start of the match and that resulted in a first opportunity after only two minutes. Araújo freed himself from Siquet via a pirouette and then played sideways to Quenda. The latter laid the leather ready for his left, but then kicked somewhat wildly several meters wide of the goal. After eight minutes, there was a first real stir when Hjulmand and Stanković collided hard with each other. At this, Ref Stieler immediately drew the red card for the Sporting CP midfielder, but after the intervention of VAR this was corrected to a yellow card. Just before the quarter hour mark, Club took over somewhat in command and we also noted the first Bruges danger. After good interference from Vermant, Forbs finally made it to the back line and then played the leather backwards. Vanaken cleverly let pass the onrushing Tzolis, but the Greek winger's shot was blocked in extremis by Diomande. Moments later, the Portuguese were able to threaten again through Catamo, but his shot from outside the penalty area was fortunately unframed.
Halfway through the first half, the home team started to get more and more involved, forcing Jackers into action. Trincão cut free and kicked towards goal, but Club's goalie reacted alertly by punching the ball away. This turned out to be just a stay of execution, because a few minutes later the goal was awarded. Catamo dribbled past Seys at speed and then went for his chance from a sharp angle. Jackers parried the attempt superbly, but was defenseless on Quenda's retrieval. The latter kicked from the turn and saw the ball hit the nets in the corner. Blauw-Zwart had to recover from this blow and on the half hour the Bruges fans were unfortunately already facing a double deficit. After a long ball, there was suddenly a sea of space in Club's defense and Suárez took advantage of it. He had no choice but to go for Jackers and lobbed the 2-0 into the net. The visitors found it difficult to get to Rui Silva's goal and it was mainly Sporting CP that created the goal threat. A good five minutes before the end of the first half, Trincão was able to advance with the ball at foot and he then targeted the far top corner. Fortunately, his place ball went just wide of Jackers' cage. Shortly thereafter, it was the same Trincão who spooned the ball onto Suárez's head, but the latter fortunately could not frame his header from close range. Thus we went to rest and Club was looking at a double deficit....
The second half started with the same 22 names on the field and this time it was Blauw-Zwart that got off to the best start. Forbs received the ball, was able to get inside and finally served Vermant in the sixteen with a subtle ball. The striker from Bruges did not hesitate and immediately kicked from an acute angle towards goal, but the shot unfortunately ended up in the side netting. A few minutes later, however, it was all but over and out for the Bruggelings when Suárez headed alone towards Jackers. The Sporting CP striker also beat Club's goalie, but fortunately Siquet was on hand to prevent a third Portuguese goal in extremis, and the ball hit the post. After ten minutes of play, Club put its nose to the window through a corner kick by Vanaken, but Mechele was unable to direct his header sufficiently and saw his effort end up next to the goal. On the hour, Nicky Hayen intervened for the first time by bringing Vermant to the side for Tresoldi and the latter soon made himself noticed. He was sent into the depths with a crafty ball from Seys, but then unfortunately tapped the ball wide of the post from close range.
Just when Blauw-Zwart seemed to be getting better into the match, Trincão did the books all the way. He was fed the ball by Quenda and did not hesitate for a moment to immediately kick the ball into the far corner past Jackers. After this new setback, the visitors made a lot of substitutions, but they also had to be careful not to get punished. Fresneda had the opportunity to strike from a sharp angle, but this time Jackers had a good reflex. So the game gradually drew to a close with little danger created on either side.
In the end, four extra minutes were counted, but that did not change the final score. Blauw-Zwart thus had a difficult European evening and lost by clear numbers against Sporting CP. Sunday they have a home game in the Jupiler Pro League against Antwerp.
UEFA Champions League - Playday 5 (League Phase)
Spectators: 46,000 - Estádio José Alvalade
Referee: Tobias Stieler (Ger)
SportingCP: Rui Silva - Iván Fresneda, Ousmane Diomande, Gonçalo Inácio, Maxi Araújo (86' Matheus Reis) - Geny Catamo (76' Salvador Blopa), João Simões (63' Hidemasa Morita), Francisco Trincão, Morten Hjulmand - Geovany Quenda (76' Alisson Santos), Luis Suárez (86' Rodrigo Ribeiro).
Bench: João Virginia, Matheus Reis, Hidemasa Morita, Giorgos Vagiannidis, Giorgi Kochorashvili, Alisson Santos, Rodrigo Ribeiro, Bruno Ramos, Flávio Gonçalves, Salvador Blopa, Eduardo Quaresma, Ricardo Mangas.
Coach: Rui Borges.
Club Brugge: Nordin Jackers - Hugo Siquet (81' Jorne Spileers), Joel Ordóñez, Brandon Mechele, Joaquin Seys (81' Zaid Romero) - Aleksandar Stanković (74' Hugo Vetlesen), Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken - Carlos Forbs (74' Mamadou Diakhon), Romeo Vermant (61' Nicolò Tresoldi), Christos Tzolis.
Bench: Dani van den Heuvel, Simon Mignolet, Zaid Romero, Nicolò Tresoldi, Hugo Vetlesen, Cisse Sandra, Gustaf Nilsson, Vince Osuji, Jorne Spileers, Mamadou Diakhon, Samuel Van Hoogen, Shandre Campbell.
Coach: Nicky Hayen.
Yellow cards: Hjulmand, Onyedika, Tzolis, Seys
Redcards: none
Goal: 24' Quenda (1-0), 31' Suárez (2-0), 70' Trincão (3-0)