Dender suffered its first blow after nine minutes, when David Hrncar unfortunately hit Lawrence Agyekum’s ankle with his studs and had to take a shower early. Dender coach Vincent Euvrard intervened tactically and made an early substitution, but could not prevent the people of Bruges from taking the deserved lead just before the half hour mark through Ibrahim Diakité, who fired in his first of the season past Michael Verrips. Felipe Augusto missed a great chance to make it 0-2 moments later, and the home team did no further than limit damage before half-time.
In the second half, Dender played from a strong organization, which meant that Cercle, even with one more man, could not create much danger for a long time. The East Flemish themselves also had difficulty getting into the enemy sixteen-metre area and were one man behind. Substitute Alan Minda had the biggest chance of the match for the Association, but Verrips prevented the 0-2.