Cercle seemed on their way to a deserved home win for a long time, but thanks to two late penalties, the visitors were able to pull out a draw. It was too meager a reward for Cercle, who failed to make progress in the table with this point.
Senna Miangue made his return last week as a substitute and was now back in the eleven. After a quiet opening twenty minutes in which only Denkey's attempt on Hubert's goal was a real threat, Cercle took control of the game. After some good build-up play by Dino Hotic, Denkey failed to find the net, as Hubert made a good save with his feet. Then, as the Oostende 'keeper was well-beaten by Hannes Van der Bruggen's placed ball, he was saved by his crossbar.
While referee Lardot initially did not respond to a call from VAR for a possible handball by Tanghe, a penalty for Cercle followed shortly after. Hotic turned his his defender, Medley, who fouled our playmaker. Kevin Denkey would take the penalty, but Hubert was able to push his effort away for a corner. The breakthrough came on the resulting corner: Popovic had a free header, Hubert was unable to hold his effort and the ball fell to Kevin Denkey (38', 1-0), who would score his first goal of the season.
Goals are sometimes like a bus: you wait a long time for one and then suddenly two come in quick succession. After a nice bit of skill by Dino Hotic and a through ball from Hannes Van der Bruggen, Ueda was able to double the lead just before the interval. In this way Cercle would go into halftime with a deserved lead.
The visitors reacted with three changes at half time and two more substitutions around the hour mark, but those didn't change the character of game much. Ueda failed to make it 3-0 from close range, which in retrospect would be a turning point in the match. The visitors became a little quicker on long balls and were thus able to beat the Cercle defense for the first time. Berte would get in behind, but Majecki denied him with a good save.
In the match's final quarter, things would go wrong for Cercle. After an intervention from VAR, Lardot tossed Oostende a lifeline by awarding a penalty for handball by Robbe Decostere. Majecki was able to keep Ambrose's effort out of this goal (76'), but he was able to score the visitors' opener via a follow-up from Sakamoto. Cercle seemed a bit unsettled and the visitors took advantage by scoring another penalty just a few minutes later. Ambrose (82', 2-2) left Majecki no chance this time, levelling the score. In the match's final stanza, Cercle could not turn the tide, as the best opportunities would fall to McGeehan.
Lineups:
Cercle: Majecki, Decostere, Popovic, Marcelin (Daland 72'), Miangue (Heitor 72'), Van der Bruggen (Vanhoutte 62'), Da Silva Lopes, Hotic, Deman (Gboho 88'), Ueda (Wilke 88') and Denkey.
KV Oostende: Hubert, Urhoghide (McGeehan 46'), Tanghe, Medley (Capon 65'), D'Haese, Rocha (Katelaris 46'), Dewaele, Bätzner (Berte 46'), Sakamoto, Ambrose and Hornby (Atanga 61')
