Club Brugge is increasingly feeling the hot breath of KAA Gent. After a victory against team-in-form KV Kortrijk, the Buffalos are within one point of the top 4. Hugo Cuypers scored both goals for the home team, which was still shaking after Bruno’s connection goal.
KAA Gent – KV Kortrijk in a nutshell:
- Key moment: Kortrijk comes out of the dressing room combative, but eventually runs into the 2-0. A perfectly played counter from the team from Ghent is neatly finished by Cuypers.
- Man of the match: Hugo Cuypers was the big star at Ghent today. The striker worked well twice and now has 11 goals in 19 games to his name.
- Statistics: AA Gent was the only JPL team that had not scored after the World Cup break. An annoying statistic that can now go back into the trash.
Fiery opening quarter
After a painful defeat in the cup, AA Gent wanted to start again today with a satisfying victory. Club Brugge’s loss of points also provided an extra stimulus.
Opponent Kortrijk was outside the danger zone again after a 6 out of 6 and wanted to take some more distance in the ranking.
After a fiery opening phase, the Ghent audience was soon rewarded after Cuypers scored the 1-0 after 7 minutes. However, the party had to be quickly interrupted because on the other side Watanabe extended a dry free kick into goal.
The VAR called referee Put to the monitor and after a short consultation the goal was cancelled. Loncar was offside and affected the game.
Afterwards, the home team remained dominant, but no more goals were scored before the break.
Ghent stands firm and does a good job
Even after the break, Ghent remained boss, but Kortrijk came up a bit more often.
Gent then chose to sink in a bit deeper and play on the counter.
A little past the hour, that also paid off. An arrow-fast counterpunch was perfectly finished by Cuypers. Match played?
However, Kortrijk’s fighting spirit was not over yet, because five minutes later Bruno actually scored the tying goal.
It turned out to be the start of a hard-fought and tense final quarter with a few more dangerous chances.
Ghent, however, held on and can thus write down its first victory of 2023. In the standings, Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s team comes within one point of Club Brugge.
Kortrijk will play an important basement cracker against Seraing next week.
Vanhaezebrouck: “Three points the most important thing”
Sven Kums (KAA Gent): “We knew we had to take the three points today, but we didn’t get it for free. We have now done a good job in the standings, but above all we have to keep looking at ourselves and win the games we need to win.”
Tom Vandenberghe (KV Kortrijk): “I would have liked a point today because it was possible. We show much more fighting spirit under Storck and if we continue to play like this we can certainly save ourselves this season.”
Bernd Storck (trainer Kortrijk): “We lost a point today. In the first half we had too much respect and were too passive. I don’t understand why our equalizer was disallowed. Maybe there are different rules in Belgium, but for me that was a goal. We aim us now for the important game next week.”
Hein Vanhaezebrouck (trainer Ghent): “I fear that we will get into trouble now that we may miss three players for a longer period of time. All in all, we did well because we created more chances than Kortrijk. We didn’t give much away either, but we just had too little control. That really has to be better. We have won the three points and that is the most important thing.”
