Cercle Brugge suffered their first defeat in the fourth round of the European Champions League qualifiers. After that, the association was not happy with the arbitration.
In the first half, Cercle Brugge had some chances, but they were unable to score. Antwerp improved in the second half and also scored on the hour mark. In Circle they no longer had an answer and were thus narrowly defeated.
In the final quarter, Circle also received four yellow cards. Among them is defender Daland, which means he will miss the match against Anderlecht on Wednesday. With Popovic suspended and Otkus injured, there was another setback.
After the match, the Circle players were not happy with referee Nathan Verbomen. “It's really frustrating, fifty-fifty is always against us,” captain Thibaut Somers said after the game.
Van der Bruggen was reprimanded by Verbomen
“Is it maybe because we're the smaller club in the qualifiers? I don't know, because sometimes there were stupid yellow cards that sometimes we didn't know why we got them,” Somers added.
Hannes van der Bruggen also received a yellow card for his protest. “I didn't say anything at all, I just sat with my hands in my hair in disbelief. He scolded me too, I don't really think this happened. And this isn't the first time either.”
“I want to argue with the referee, but I would never use an expletive. He said: 'I saw it wrong, you idiot'. Maybe he was a bit tired in the second half. But you don't do that.” Don't do that to players.”
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