Fortuna loses to Beerschot after penalties

The intentions were clear from the first whistle: attack. The team of head coach Danny Buijs could therefore be found a lot in Beerschot's half. Nevertheless, Fortuna hardly got in front of Davor Matijas' goal in the opening phase. The keeper himself was responsible for the two most precarious moments, shooting the ball twice from close range against Tijjani Noslin. The ball rolled over the back line in both cases.

With fifteen minutes on the clock, the picture changed somewhat. Beerschot got into the game better and had more access to the ball. Benjamin Pauwels in particular made his mark offensively and took the Sittard goal under fire twice. In the end, the chances in the first half were few and far between, leaving the final score on the board after 45 minutes.

In the second half, Fortuna suffered an early setback. Arianit Ferati picked up a red card soon after the restart. The left-winger made an unnecessary and hard foul in midfield. Despite the underdog situation, Fortuna still came close to the Belgian goal several times. Among others, captain Ivo Pinto and Alen Halilovic tried from distance.

With an hour on the clock, Fortuna was forced further and further back. Ivor Pandur had to intervene in attempts by Ayouba Kosiah, Simion Michez, former Fortunee Thibaud Verlinden and others. With the final whistle in sight, Beerschot squeezed out a final offensive, but both goals remained clean until the final whistle.

Because there had to be a winner, the game immediately went to penalty kicks. Both teams failed to see the first penalty kick go in. Beerschot did not fail again. Remy Vita saw his effort turned away, while Rodrigo Guth saw the ball pass the goalkeeper and the post in front of the goal. Because of the two misses on the Sittard side, the home team won the Memorial Marc Steenackers.

Line-up: Pandur, Pinto, Guth, Siovas (46' Dijks), Vita, Duarte (90' Fofana), Rosier (80' Radic), Ferati, Halilovic (80' Gladon), Noslin and Córdoba (90' Umaro).