December 27, 2022
When these diaries covered Antwerp’s match at Standard Liege in October they were top of the Belgium First Division A, but lost top spot after that 0-3 defeat.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2022/10/standard-liege-3-0-royal-antwerp-att.html
They subsequently lost the top of the table battle at home to Genk ( 1-3 ) and then went down at Charleroi ( 0-1 ). These losses were followed by a 0-0 home draw with Anderlecht and a 2-2 draw at Club Brugge, after being 0-2 behind, to make it 4 league matches without a win up to the break for the World Cup.
On the resumption of the season though, they did gain a 4-0 win over Standard in the Belgian Cup and started the day in third place 11 points adrift of Genk, but with a game in hand.
Westerlo is a town in the province of Antwerp with a population of around 20,000, and the distance from Antwerp is around 50km, or about 55 minutes by road down the E313. The town’s football club returned to the top flight of Belgian football by winning the First Division B last season.
Koninklijke Voetbal Club ( KVC ) Westerlo were in 7th place with an overall record of 8-2-7, and 5-1-2 at home. Their form against the big names in Belgium had been good, registering victories at home over Standard ( 4-2 ), Anderlecht ( 2-1 ) and at Club Brugge ( 2-0 ). They had also managed a 1-1 draw at high flying Union St Gilloise. Their other successes had been over Cercle Brugge ( 2-0 ), Waregem ( 2-0 ), Oostende ( 6-0 ) at home, and at Charleroi ( 3-2 ). The two home reverses were against Eupen ( 0-1 ) and St Truiden ( 2-3 ). The first meeting between these two sides had finished in a 3-0 win for Antwerp in early September.
Home is the 8,035 capacity Het Kuipje, and their average attendance so far this season was 5,439. The highest crowd was the 8,000 sell-out for the match against Anderlecht, followed by the 6,052 who turned up for the 6-0 win over Oostende, their last match before the enforced break. Home colours are yellow shirts with blue shorts.
Two key players for Westerlo have been ex-Monaco and Vitoria Guimares South African forward Lyle Foster ( 9 caps ) who had scored 8 times, whilst Malian striker Nene Dorgeles, on loan from Red Bull Salzburg, had found the net 5 times. Perhaps the most familiar name in their line was ex-Tottenham, WBA and Monaco winger Nacer Chadli, who won 66 caps for Belgium and scored their winning goal in extra time against Japan in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He is on loan from Turkish side Basiksehir
The Westerlo starting XI for today’s match included only three Belgians ( although there were another 6 on the bench), but featured three players from Turkey, keeper Sinan Bolat who has 12 caps and previously played for Antwerp, ex-Goztepe midfielder Halil Akbunar ( 2 caps ) and centre-back Ravil Tagir. The other foreigners starting for De Kemphanen were on loan Roma full-back Bryan Reynolds ( 2 caps for the USA ), ex-Schalke and Borussia Moenchengladbach centre-back Roman Neustadter, who won 12 caps for Russia, and Danish midfielder Nicolas Madsen.
The Antwerp team included two players who had appeared in the Qatar World Cup. Veteran centre-back Toby Alderweireld played every minute of Belgium’s disappointing campaign, whilst forward Vincent Janssen started the Netherlands first match against Senegal, but thereafter only made a brief substitute appearance against Qatar.
The Antwerp XI tonight contained 4 Belgians, with another 5 as substitutes, and only two players didn’t feature in the game against Standard back in October. Gaston Avila, formerly of Boca Juniors and Rosario Central came in at left wing-back, and 17 year-old midfielder Arthur Vermeeren made his first start for The Great Old.
The temperature at the 20.00 local kick-off time was 6 degrees on a clear evening, and ticket prices for the game ranged from €10 to €30.
The match was live streamed on Bet365.com, who made Antwerp favourites at 13/10, Westerlo were at 9/5 with the draw at 12/5.
The visitors started impressively and nearly opened the scoring with less than two minutes played after almost receiving a belated Christmas present from their hosts. Westerlo left-back Maxim de Cuyper played a careless pass across the field which went beyond Mathias Fixelles. Frey was alert to play an immediate pass to Stengs who shot left-footed towards the keeper’s bottom right-hand corner, but Bolat produced an excellent diving save to push the ball away for a corner. Although the corner was headed away, the ball was crossed back into the Westerlo area for Pacho to head narrowly over the bar from 8 yards before Bolat could get a punch to the ball.
The Westerlo guardian was wearing an interesting choice of grey socks which went over his knees, to give an initial impression he was wearing tracksuit bottoms. Antwerp’s Dutch midfielder Calvin Stengs was also making an impression but for footballing rather than fashion reasons, catching the eye with a number of weaving runs and being all left-foot, and when taking a corner he had won, neither Frey nor De Laet could get onto the end of his wicked delivery as the ball sailed across the goalmouth.
Although Dorgeles sent a threatening cross from the by-line for Westerlo, it was Antwerp who continued to dominate, but a flowing move and a threaded pass by Stengs was wasted by a poor first touch from full-back Richie De Laet who was unmarked inside the Westerlo penalty area.
De Laet was also at fault for Westerlo’s first shot of the match in the 14th minute, caught dithering by Akbunar, who stole the ball away from the ex-Manchester United defender only to side-foot well-wide from 20 yards.
After a high tempo beginning it was perhaps unsurprising the pace slackened a little. Antwerp’s Avila ended up on the floor from what looked to be a relatively harmless off-the-ball collision with Chadli, and although a free-kick was awarded, the referee took no further action. However, the first yellow card was shown after 20 minutes after Fixelles made a run down the left touchline and after laying the ball off to Foster was unnecessarily hauled to the floor by De Laet to incur the wrath of the official.
De Laet was nearly embarrassed from the subsequent in-swinging free-kick by Madsen. Pacho completely missed his defensive header, and the ball struck the foot of the unsuspecting De Laet, but fortunately for the Antwerp defender the ball somehow flew over the bar from less than 6 yards out to prevent an own goal.
The visitors responded to this lucky escape with another flowing move resulting with Bataille running across the face of the penalty area, but with huge gaps appearing in the Westerlo defence he could only screw his left-footed effort a few feet wide when he really should have hit the target.
Frey then played in Bataille on the right to deliver a low cross into the 6 yard area. Keeper Bolat couldn’t hold onto the cross but his push was enough to divert the ball away from the incoming Janssen, with Tagir completing the clearance.
With 31 minutes on the clock, Frey showed good skill to control a long cross-field ball but fell to the floor after a challenge from Neustadter. The referee ignored the appeals for a penalty.
Antwerp should have taken the lead in the 39th minute but were thwarted by a combination of an incredible miss and some outstanding defending. Janssen spread the ball out to the left where Muja was completely unmarked 8 yards out. The Kosovan unselfishly played the square ball rather than go for glory himself but rather than simply side-foot the ball into the empty net, Frey attempted to take a touch, enabling Tagir to dive in and spectacularly divert the ball over from virtually under the bar.
The miss was to prove costly. Three minutes later Foster got to the by-line but Alderweireld was able to intercept his centre at the expense of a corner. De Cuyper’s kick was swung into the near post, but De Laet, Janssen and Pacho all failed to clear, and the ball bounced past the unsighted Butez and into the net to give Westerlo the lead direct from the corner. Their fans celebrated wildly and were doing the Poznan as the whistle blew for half-time.
The statistics showed the Westerlo had 52% of the first-half possession but Antwerp would have been disappointed to have been behind at the interval, having looked the more dangerous side, and Westerlo’s chances all came from defensive mistakes, with De Laet perhaps being Westerlo’s most potent weapon !
Antwerp looked to attack straight from the whistle and Westerlo’s Reynolds immediately saw yellow after bringing down Avila just outside the penalty area. However, the free-kick from a promising position on the left was wasted, going straight at the defensive wall and Westerlo launched a quick counter-attack. Foster got past De Laet to get to the by-line but his cross was poor. Alderweireld had time to control but panicked and wildly attempted to clear. Unfortunately for the ex-Tottenham man the ball went straight to Madsen on the edge of the area who had time to look up and place a curling shot into the bottom corner giving Butez no chance. 2-0 to Westerlo with 49 minutes played.
It could have been three a minute later, but Butez was able to fall onto Akbunar’s ball from the right before it could reach a Westerlo attacker, but another goal did arrive a minute later, but for Antwerp. After Janssen had shot narrowly wide, Muja made ground into the home area on the left and when Reynolds slipped in front of him, Muja did well to avoid making any contact to give away a foul as the prone defender tried to shield the ball, and the Antwerp midfielder managed to poke the ball away from the American and play a short pass to Frey, and this time the Swiss striker didn’t miss from 6 yards.
In a frantic start to the half, Westerlo should have scored a third goal in 5 minutes but Akbunar spooned his effort over from 12 yards “a la Jonny Wilkinson” after Foster’s pass had been allowed to roll by Dorgeles.
Three minutes later Antwerp came close to an equaliser, as Janssen ran onto to a long ball out of defence, got there ahead of Bolat but despite pushing the ball around the stranded keeper, Reynolds was covering back and was able to play the ball off for a corner.
Both sides were searching for a potentially crucial fourth goal in the match as the game went end to end and became even more entertaining for the neutral. Chadli delivered a great cross-field pass to Akunbar now appearing on the left but the Turkish midfielder sent his curling effort straight at Butez, who saved easily. Janssen then cut inside from the right but his attempt from 18 yards was deflected wide but the referee awarded a goal-kick to Westerlo.
In the 64th minute, teenager Vermeeren, who had so far made a tidy debut with many good touches in the centre of midfield, was robbed of possession near the half-way. As the defenders backed-off and retreated rather than make a challenge and force the Westerlo player to make a decision, Fixelles continued to charge forward to the 18 yard line to fire a tremendous shot into the roof of the net leaving Butez motionless.
With a 3-1 lead Westerlo were now playing with some swagger, sweeping forward with some delightful one touch football. Although Muja had a shot go wide, Antwerp were struggling to get back into the game as both sides started introducing replacements.
Frey and Stengs combined to tee-up Alderweireld but the long range attempt was comfortably dealt with by Bolat, who then made a similar save from substitute Balikwisha. Perhaps thinking the three points were in the bag took-off Dorgeles and Fixelles, two of their better performers with just over 12 minutes remaining in what appeared to be a case of making changes because they could rather than needed to……
In the short-term though it looked more likely the home side would make it 4-1 rather than Antwerp make it 3-2 as Akbunar butchered another chance, and then Foster was crowded out when well placed. Reynolds thumped left-footed inches wide of the far post from a tight angle on the right and Pacho then needed to make a good sliding block to deny Foster after a good run down the left by De Cuyper. If it was a boxing match it might have been stopped……….
Westerlo were made to pay for such profligacy when Janssen pulled a goal back with 4 minutes remaining. As the home side continued to press, Stengs played a smart pass through the middle for Janssen, and although the Dutch striker was forced wide, he sent a strong shot across the face of goal and into the bottom corner. Game on ?
Antwerp surged forward, and with one minute left on the clock, Frey held the ball up well and fed Janssen but the attempted back-heel went to Neustadter. However, similar to Westerlo’s second goal, the clearance was poor and went to Stengs, whose 20 yard attempt found the centre of the net as Bolat dived to this right. Two goals in 3-3 minutes, and Antwerp had come back from the dead !
There were still three minutes of added time left to be played, and Westerlo camped in the Antwerp half, but Foster couldn’t reach a pass from De Cuyper, and with the last play of the game, the South African could only tamely head wide.
The final whistle brought an end to fabulously entertaining match in which both sides might feel dis-satified with the result. Antwerp had gone from being the better side, to looking like being on the end of a thumping, to playing a “get-out-of-jail free” card to grab a point that now put them 10 points behind Genk. Westerlo will be wandering how they let the game slip.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQKcvfq4iQ
KVC Westerlo : Bolat – Reynolds, Neustadter, Tagir, De Cuyper – Akbunar ( Jordanov ), Madsen, Fixelles ( Vaesen ), Chadli ( Van Eenoo ) – Foster, Dorgeles ( Dierckx )
Royal Antwerp : Butez – De Laet, Alderweireld, Pacho, Avila ( Nsimba ) – Bataille ( Balikwisha ), Stengs, Vermeeren ( Almeida ), Muja – Janssen, Frey
