The regular season was already a painful affair for the supporters of Zulte Waregem, tonight it received a lifeline in the jump-off matches. Against Lommel, Vossen and co seemed on their way to victory for a long time, until they suffered a blow.
Tonight, two attractive teams faced each other in the Promotion Play-Offs with Zulte Waregem and Lommel. Essevee was a towering title favorite before the season, but failed to such an extent that it only reached this play-off on the final match day. It was also a bad ending for Lommel, the Limburgers were aiming for second place, but in the end it went to Dender. Deinze was most likely to be waiting in the final, which won by no less than 0-4 against Patro this afternoon.
Disallowed goal kills Essevee
It was the home team that came out on top with an early chance for Ndour, his shot flew too centrally towards De Busser. Lommel subsequently took over command with opportunities for Rosa and Vancsa, De Wolf was also alert in goalkeeping.
Ultimately, it seemed that Essevee would fortunately take the lead just before half time after a header from Machado. However, the VAR (present at these barrege matches) intervened and correctly saw that the ball flew into the goal via the hand of teammate Ndour. Halfway through it was still 0-0.
Vossen strikes, sledgehammer in the end
After the break, both teams were looking for a minimum of one goal bonus heading into the second leg. Essevee also pushed the most and was unlucky that an attempt by Nnadi did not fly into the goal via De Busser and the post. Halfway through the second period the home side got some help from the visitors when Granell committed a handball and a penalty was awarded. Jelle Vossen provided the redemption from eleven meters: 1-0.
Zulte also seemed to take that small lead into the second leg, until Dermane left the home crowd with a hangover in the end after a nice shot in the far corner: 1-1. In the remaining minutes, Vossen missed another great chance and the score remained a draw. Everything can still be played in this confrontation, although Lommel certainly has a slight mental advantage.
Score progression:
1-0 (66′) Vossen (p), 1-1 (89′) Dermane
