Kortrijk Edge Waasland-Beveren in Ten-Man Battle
Kortrijk beat Waasland-Beveren 1:0 at Guldensporenstadion on Sunday in the Pro-Lig Jupiler, a result that keeps the hosts rooted to bottom of the table while the visitors remain ninth. Jamie Roche struck in the fifty-second minute, and here's the thing — it came after Waasland-Beveren had played the second half a man down since Johannes Schenk's red card in the thirty-second. By then the match had already shifted, though not in the way most expected.
Schenk went off with forty minutes still to play, and Waasland-Beveren tried to stay compact. Chris Lokesa came on in the thirty-sixth as they adjusted, but the shape never quite settled. Kortrijk stayed patient, probing without rushing, and when Roche finally found space fifty-two minutes in he made no mistake. The goal changed everything, even if the statistics don't tell that story.
Waasland-Beveren had the better numbers on paper. They held fifty-seven per cent of possession, completed 422 passes to Kortrijk's 317, and created more attacks overall. But shots tell a different tale: four on target for the hosts against just one for the visitors, and five big chances created by Kortrijk while the visitors managed none. They played for control but came for a cross they never reached.
The cards kept coming after the goal. James Willy Ndjeungoue and Thierry Ambrose picked up yellows in the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth minutes, and Brecht Dejaegere plus Christophe Janssens followed in the seventy-third. Kortrijk's Jamie Roche was booked in the eighty-third, a reflection of how the game opened up as the visitors pushed forward. Substitutions piled up in the final third, but the tempo never quite found its rhythm again.
It was a result that surprised plenty, including us. We had backed Waasland-Beveren to win at forty-two per cent confidence, but the red card in the thirty-second minute broke the script. Kortrijk didn't dominate, they just took the one chance they really needed. The hosts stay on three points from seven games, while the visitors' unbeaten run in five came to an end here.
Report by Étienne Gagnon
