Beerschot VA vs Francs Borains 3-0

Beerschot VA beat Francs Borains 3-0 at Olympisch Stadion after early VAR drama, a cancelled red card and a first-half penalty. Brian Plat opened the scoring from the spot, Arnold Vula Lamb Luth doubled the lead after the interval and Toshio Lake, off the bench, finished it.

The opening spell brought the first turning point in the second minute when Mathias Francotte was shown a red card for Francs Borains, only for VAR to cancel that decision a minute later. Beerschot were then awarded a penalty after another VAR check in the 40th minute, and Plat converted in the 43rd minute to make it 1-0. Glenn Claes was replaced by Lake at half-time, and Lake provided the assist when Vula Lamb Luth made it 2-0 in the 49th minute. The half-time score was 1-0.

Francs Borains made three changes in the 53rd minute, with Dieumerci Ndongala, Enzo Faty and Yannis Kari all coming off, but they could not change the pattern of the match. Raymond Asante was booked in the 61st minute, with VAR again overturning any upgrade a minute later, while Beerschot picked up a yellow for Genki Haraguchi in the 65th minute before he was replaced in the 71st minute. Lake, who came on in the 45th minute, then scored in the 79th minute for his first of the match, with Vula Lamb Luth involved again, and Beerschot later made three changes in the 83rd minute before Edisson Jordanov was booked a minute later.

The numbers backed Beerschot's control. They had 67% of the ball, 567 passes to Francs Borains' 284, 16 shots to 5 and 6 on target to 2, with an xG figure of 2.19 to 0.3. Beerschot also won 9 corners to 2, while Francs Borains made 15 fouls to 14 and had 3 saves to Beerschot's 2.

Both sides finished with two yellow cards. Francs Borains also had Mathias Francotte sent off in the 2nd minute before VAR cancelled that decision, while Dieumerci Ndongala and Raymond Asante were booked for the visitors, and Genki Haraguchi and Edisson Jordanov went into the book for Beerschot.