Beerschot made a gamely comeback in an entertaining 3-3 draw against Flanders' Zulte Waregem.
They took the lead early from a rather poorly struck corner from Holzhauser. He had recently committed to stay at Beerschot through the winter window. Anyway, his intended inswinger didn't really get off the ground and the low centre was missed by those at the near post and fell kindly to young Greek centre back Konstantopoulos to slot home first time from 7 yards out, his first for the club.
This had followed an abberation of a handball decision not given when Shankland's shot was palmed away by the defender. The referees body have come out since and admitted a mistake was made by the referee and VAR in not awarding but that is scant consolation to the team that could have been 2-0 to the good. Image below. Hand miles away from the body. It seems when your luck is out, it's really out:
Zo mooi als de gouden invalbeurt van Ilias Sebaoui was, zo pover was de arbitrage tijdens Beerschot – Zulte Waregem. Twee penalty’s hadden er immers altijd drie moeten zijn. Scheidsrechter Bert Put én VAR Wesli De Cremer bepaalden zo mee het matchverloop, want wat als Beerschot al na vijf...
m.gva.be
Zulte equalised from a breakaway on a Beerschot corner with a clinical finish after a slick counter offensive.
They then got a penalty of their own given by VAR for handball which I'm sure was gauling for the home support.
To compound this another fast paced counter attack saw them 1-3 down. You can see from the highlights but I thought the goalie made it a bit easy for the striker. The ball got put through his legs but with 2 defenders around the forward I think he may have been better staying back.
So a pretty poor scenario at half-time. But it does seem Beerschot may have found themselves a new hero in the guise of young Ilias Sebaoui. He had a calm assurance about him, not too dissimilar to N'Diaye. He carried the ball effortlessly forward to lay into the path of the Cameroonian Noubissi. The ball broke a little as he was pressed and Shankland, the ex-Dundee United player was on hand to slot home as the ball broke. His second in 2 games. After a disappointing season he might be finding his feet, albeit late in the day.
In the closing stages Beerschot were camped out in the opposition third and the pressure finally told. A penalty was given for a slightly soft handball; it was handball, but nowhere near as glaring as the one not given. More ball to hand and not as unnatural as the earlier claim. But a deserved award in the context of the game. Out of all the experienced players on the pitch, it was the young 20 year old, who had only entered the fray in the 72nd minute who courageously stepped up to the spot and placed a low penalty to the keeper's far right corner out of the reach of the dispairing dive. All the more impressive when you consider the state of the game and that the spot kick was in the 92nd minute.
There was still time for more Beerschot attacking but Avenatti was unable to beat the keeper with a header being pushed away for a corner. From the next attack a subsequent scramble was pounced upon by the keeper who made a meal of being injured but I didn't see any contact. It did enough to waste time so that the game remained all square.
Possibly should have won on the balance of play but could also have lost with the half time scoreline.
With Seraing also getting a point from a 0-0 at Eupen it did little in the grand scheme of things for Beerschot's prospects this season though at least the fight back and the emergence of youth provided some positivity in an otherwise unfulfilling season.
There was little news in the transfer market this week for them. The earlier loans of Rigo and Avenatti were all in terms of incomings. A young left winger Issa Soumaré was loaned to Rouen in Ligue 2 in France. He managed 11 games at the start of the season, scoring once but had featured only sparingly since Torrente took over from Peter Maes. In a bizarre twist, the second player to leave was a loanee from Gambia, Abdoulie Sanyang, a right winger, who not only mirrored the record of 11 appearances and 1 goal but immediately after his loan was cancelled, joined Ligue 2 Grenoble, whose next match is against Rouen!
Beerschot's next game is against Mechelen who they lost to 1-0 at home earlier in the season. Last year's away fixture saw Beerschot 3-2 winners with the goals coming from Tissoudali, Coulibaly and Van Den Bergh, so they'll be hoping for a repeat scoreline as they look to keep safety at least a mathematical possibility for as long as possible.
