Peter De Voecht / Photo News

Antwerp come back from behind to beat Cercle

In the first of Sunday’s three Belgian First Division games Royal Antwerp FC came back from being a goal down to beat bottom team Cercle Brugge in Bruges’ Jan Breydel Stadium. 

Cercle were awarded a penalty after only around 10 seconds of play. Kevin Hoggas converted from the spot to put the home side a goal up. Things went from bad to worse for Antwerp on 7 minutes when Wesley Hoedt was given his marching orders.

Despite playing against 10 men, the team that is languishing at the bottom of the First Division was unable to capitalise.

Antwerp’s equaliser came on 13 minutes through Refaelov. Despite their one-man advantage Cercle were unable to score a second goal. It was over and out for them when Alexis De Sart scored what turned out to be the winning goal for Antwerp on 53 minutes.

The result leaves Cercle Brugge still bottom with 11 points from 22 games. With just 8 games to go Cercle are 7 points behind the next to bottom team KV Oostende. Royal Antwerp are now joint-second (with AA Gent) and have 42 points.           

Top stories