With this split, Ghent climbs to fifth place with 35 points, tied with Charleroi and two lengths behind Antwerp. For its part, Kortrijk remains stuck in eighth place with 32 units. Even before kick-off, the meeting was marked on both sides by absences due to injuries, covid or the African Cup of Nations, which forced the two coaches to ‘tinker’. On the side of Ghent, we found ourselves in particular without Tarik Tisoudali, Michaël Ngadeu, Laurent Depoitre or Vadis Odjija.
Squad changes which were beneficial to Kortrijk at the start of the game, since the Kerels opened the scoring before the tenth minute of play. While the Gantois played a corner, the ball returned to the feet of Dylan Mbayo in his half of the field . The Courtrais striker went up the rest of the pitch before taking advantage of the apathy of the opposing defense to enter the rectangle and deceive Sinan Bolat, who came to meet him.
Two minutes later, following a one-two in the large rectangle, Andrew Hjulsager tried his luck at the height of the small rectangle, but did not deceive the vigilance of Marko Ilic. Pelé Mboyo with a shot that was too crossed (13th) and Julien De Sart with a free kick (29th) was no more successful.
Finally, in a meeting without much rhythm, the Buffalos came back to the score on a set piece just before the break. Following a corner, Marko Ilic cleared the ball badly with his fist. He came back to the feet of Alessio Castro-Montes who shook the nets for the third time this season (44th, 1-1).
At the start of the second act, Gand took control of the match for the first time. Mboyo beautifully headed in a cross from the left side of Matisse Samoise to score his first goal of the season (52nd, 2-1).
In the last quarter of an hour, Kortrijk headed out of the water and got a big chance through Abdelhak Kadri. The Algerian played with the Ghent defense and went alone on goal, but an attentive and prompt Bolat in his exit prevented the equalizer (78th).
It was only a postponement for Kerels who equalized at the very end of the game thanks to Mbayo’s second personal goal. After a superb control directed between two defenders, he again won his duel with Bolat thanks to a small dive ball (90 + 1, 2-2).
