With an away mission in the third prelims of the UEFA Champions League, Club Brugge kickstarted its European season against locals FC Red Bull Salzburg. After a first half peppered with chances on both sides of the pitch, the sole goal of the evening came with fifteen minutes on the clock as Romeo Vermant showed his true marksman's skills helping Club to a great first leg result ahead of next week's return at Jan Breydel.
Not the best of dress rehearsals for Blue and Black as it suffered a 2-1 league defeat at the hands of KV Mechelen over the weekend. Coach Hayen opted for two new names for the battle at Salzburg, going for Mignolet in goal at the expense of Jackers. No Ordóñez either, with Meijer being given the nod and pushing Seys to right back and Spileers to the heart of defense. The other names remained the same, with a.o. Tzolis and Vermant in charge of goal scoring against the sturdy and fiery Austrians.
After a hesitant start by both teams, the hosts created the first danger of the game as Lainer's throw-in found an infiltrating Bidstrup who made it to the goal line, pullin g it back to Kitano, but the latter's shot ended up against the back of Vertessen. A few minutes later, a corner kick ended up with Meijer, but the Dutchman was unable to put much force into it to cause real danger. The game now going from side to side, Vertessen managed to keep Spileers at bay as he surged towards the goal line, finding Bidstrup with a clever ball back. Salzburg's skipper took it in one go, but Mignolet eagerly pawed away the hard shot. Another fine corner kick found Spileers in the centre, but the defender was unable to frame his header.
The Austrians held on to their offensive efforts with long range efforts by Kjærgaard and Kitano, both blocked by a Club defender, and a solid shot by Vertessen suffered the same fate. The Belgian striker kept asking the Club defense questions, but he proved unable to frame his shots. Not that Club settled into a defensive stance, though, and Vetlesen was offered a fine chance after Vanaken and Meijer combined well to put Meijer through on the wing, finding the Norwegian, but an Austrian body got in the way. Shortly after, another fine Meijer cross was not met by a Club player. Both teams had one more fine chance to open the score by the absolute end of the first half. First Vertessen pushed through well in the box to get it to Krätzig, but the midfielder hesitated a tad too much offering Mignolet the chance to intervene. Club's best chance of the young game came as Onyedika's cross pass put Seys through on the right. The young defender passed it with one fine touch to Vermant, creeping up in front of Schlager. RB's goalie had a fine reflex in store, however, and in the rebound Tzolis was unable to get it past Rasmussen.
No changes to either team at half time, which started in the same fashion as its counterpart, both teams trying to find an opening but initially without success. This time, however, it was the hosts with the first real threat as Tzolis lined up for a free kick, curling it inside the box to find Mechele, but the defender's header sailed over Schlager's goal. Two minutes later, an even better chance came as Spileers cleverly intercepted and put it wide to Tzolis. The Greek handed it to Reis, who tried to put in the far corner with a tricky left footed attempt, but the shot was to meek to really unsettle Schlager, pushing it into the feet of Tzolis who sliced it in front of the goal mound without finding any Bruges connection. An excellent chance, and it was only halfway through the second half that Salzburg managed to threaten through Baidoo, just on, whose cross found an infiltrating Kitano, but the Japanese's volley stranded over.
With twenty minutes to go, Vermant put it wide to Tzolis on the left, producing his signature move as he cut inside and went past a sliding Gadou. Schlager had to give it all he had to deny the Greek's hard shot into the bottom right hand corner. It turned out to be a stay of execution, however, as Meijer's cross from the left wing found Vermant in front of goal, timing his effort perfectly to beat his defender to the ball and tap it past a hapless Schlager (0-1). Not the result the hosts had hoped for, and Salzburg started piling on the pressure to get that equaliser as Diabaté immediately put Mignolet to work with a low shot from well outside the box, tapped into corner kick by Club's seasoned No1. And that was not all for the hosts, as they kept testing Mignolet's focus as Nene tried in the short corner (pawed away) and Ratkov tried to dummy Mignolet (pushed away) and Nene's heading rebound again found our Torwart on his way.
Five minutes of added time, with a fine heading opportunity for Nene going wide, did not help Salzburg in denying Club their excellent first leg result.
UEFA Champions League – Third preliminary round first leg
Audience: 10,000 – Red Bull Arena
Ref: Mr. Srđan Jovanović (SER)
FC Red Bull Salzburg: Alexander Schlager – Stefan Lainer, Joane Gadou, Jacob Rasmussen, Frans Krätzig – Sota Kitano (77’ Petar Ratkov), Mads Bidstrup, Soumaïla Diabaté, Maurits Kjærgaard (65’ Kerim Alajbegovic) – Yorbe Vertessen (65’ Edmund Baidoo), Dorgeles Nene.
Bench: Nikola Sarcevic, Salko Hamzic, Aleksa Terzic, Mamady Diambou, Edmund Baidoo, Petar Ratkov, Kerim Alajbegovic, Adam Daghim, Tim Trummer, Jannik Schuster, Enrique Aguilar.
Coach: Thomas Letsch.
Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet – Joaquin Seys (76’ Hugo Siquet), Jorne Spileers, Brandon Mechele, Bjorn Meijer (88’ Zaid Romero) - Raphael Onyedika, Ludovit Reis (76’ Aleksandar Stanković), Hans Vanaken – Hugo Vetlesen (88’ Carlos Forbs), Romeo Vermant (90+2’ Nicolò Tresoldi), Christos Tzolis.
Bench: Nordin Jackers, Dani van den Heuvel, Zaid Romero, Hugo Siquet, Vince Osuji, Aleksandar Stanković, Lynnt Audoor, Cisse Sandra, Shandre Campbell, Carlos Forbs, Nicolò Tresoldi, Kaye Furo.
Coach: Nicky Hayen.
Yellow: Onyedika, Nene
Red: none
Goals: 75’ Vermant (0-1)