How laborious it was! The Imps met Turkey this Friday evening in Leuven on the occasion of their fifth qualifying match for Euro 2023. After a very poor first period of chances, the Imps finally opened the scoring thanks to a cross strike from the player of Antwerp Michel Ange Balikwisha, perfectly served by Yari Verschaeren (1-0, 51 ‘). At the end of the meeting, Ignace Van der Brempt ensured the victory of his family by converting a penalty (2-0, 90 + 5 ‘). Thanks to this 5th consecutive success, the players of Jacky Mathijssen take another step towards Euro 2023.
The meeting started thirty minutes late following a technical problem affecting the Turkish bus. Once the 22 players were on the pitch, we saw a very closed start to the match with the Belgians setting their foot on the ball (more than 60% of ball possession), without however succeeding in creating opportunities against to very rough Turks in the game (four yellow cards in the first half).
The Imps found it difficult to be dangerous, except by rare incursions by Logan Ndembe (28th, 32nd) or Lois Openda, left alone on goal after a poor recovery from the defense (30th). But each time, the last gesture was lacking and the Turkish defense was not worried. A virgin score sanctioned a first act whose end was very tense, at the limit of the general fight.
As soon as they returned from the locker room, Jacky Mathijssen’s men deservedly took the advantage through Michel-Ange Balikwisha (51st). The Antwerp forward picked up a good pass behind Yari Verschaeren’s defense that Nicolas Raskin cleverly left past for his ex-Standard teammate. The latter controlled and deceived the visitor doorman with a cross strike.
The Belgians kept control of the ball and in the 76th minute Lois Openda forced the Turkish goalkeeper to relax after a consecutive strike from a corner kick. Without real danger for visitors. The end of the match was a little more rhythmic and each team was going to create chances.
Almost non-existent offensively until then, the Turks put their nose to the window in the 80th and forced Maarten Vandevoordt to intervene for the first time on a strike in the small rectangle. Two minutes later, he won his duel against Gokdeniz Bayrakdar, well launched in the back of the defense. His attempt was narrowly deflected by the KRC Genk goalkeeper who took the ball out a few centimeters.
In the 85th minute, Anas Zaroury, entered the game a few minutes earlier, missed the chaos goal by placing a magnificent center behind Openda just next to the goal of Turkey. The same Zaroury turned into a decisive passer on a free kick for Amadou Onana, but the recovery of the Lille player crashed against the upright (88th).
In stoppage time, Ali Kaan Guneren touched the ball with his hand in the small rectangle. The referee sanctioned him with a second yellow card and awarded a penalty to the Imps, transformed by Ignace Van der Brempt just before the final whistle (90 + 5).
In the standings, thanks to this victory, the Diablotins prance ahead of Group I with 15 points out of 15. They have 9 lengths ahead of Denmark, which is two matches behind. The Danes will have the opportunity to make up part of their delay on the lawn of this same Turkey on November 16. At the same time, Belgium will travel to Scotland to try to win their sixth meeting in a row. The Scots beat Kazakhstan 2-1 on Friday night for their first victory (in 3 matches) in this campaign.
The nine group winners and the best runner-up will qualify directly for the competition to be held in June and July 2023 in Georgia and Romania. The other eight runners-up will compete for the last four tickets in play-offs in September 2022.
