Beerschot - Lierse: 2-1
A well deserved victory for Beerschot on Friday night. Our Mannekes overpowered Lierse for the full ninety minutes and came back after conceding with goals from Wright-Phillips and Verlinden.
The visitors opted for an ultra defensive and spectacle killing sort of football by constantly keeping nine, and sometimes even ten, players in their own box. But thanks to a quick counter they opened the score when Ocansey beat the offside trap and beat Matijas in the near corner. Totally undeserved. A couple of minutes later Sow nearly doubled the advantage when he was sent through by a mistake in the Beerschot defence. The Lierse striker hit the post.
From then on Beerschot took full control, overpowered and overran the visitors... and equalised when Wright-Phillips scored with a nice header from a Verlinden cross. Lierse moved even more players back in defence and their time wasting - with goalkeeper Teunckens as main culprit - was frustrating for everyone in the Olympic Stadium.
Beerschot produced the same dominance after the break, created good chances through Reyners and Verlinden but Teunckens denied a second Beerschot goals... until 20 minutes from the end when the Lierse goalie fumbled and Verlinden poached by putting the bal in the Lierse net for a totally, deserved and welcome 2-1 win. In the dying seconds of the game Cagro came close to a third goal but failed to score in a one on one with Teunckens.
BEERSCHOT: Matijas, Matthys, Reyners, Verlinden, Nzita, Tshimanga, Weymans, Huiberts, Wright-Phillips, Cagro, Konstantopoulos
LIERSE: Teunckens, Tirpan, Nkaka, Boone, Schouterden, Vanderhallen, Sow, Van Acker, Brebels, Van Dessel, Ocansey
GOALS: ’36 OCansey (0-1), ’42 Wright-Phillips (1-1), ’70 Verlinden (2-1)
