Sport

Cercle Brugge back in the top flight

In an exciting second leg of the play-off game between the teams that came out on top in the first and second halves of the Second Division football season it was Cercle Brugge that came out on top. The Bruges team enjoyed at 3-1 win on the night and 3-2 aggregate win against Beerschot-Wilrijk.

Cercle Brugge went on the offensive from the outset, pushing Beerschot-Wilrijk back. The Beerschot-Wilrijk keeper Romo gave off his best denying Mercier and Taravel.

However, this only served to postpone the inevitable. Mercier put Cercle 1-0 up on 31 minutes and Crysan made it 2-0 to Cercle 5 minutes later.

Despite being 2-0 up on the night, Cercle’s aggregate lead was only 2-1 and with the away goals rule Beerschot-Wilrijk only needed to score once to gain promotion. And score they did, in the 84th minute through Van Hyfte.

However, it was not to be as the match referee Alexandre Boucaut awarded a penalty to Cercle in the 90th minute of play, a decision that was confirmed by the video ref. Cardona converted the spot kick, making it 3-1 on the night and 32 on aggregate.

After 3 years Cercle Brugge make their return to the top tier of Belgian football.

 

Top stories