Westerlo-Beveren, 4-4. I followed it on Sporza (the Flemish public broadcaster) with my paper cone of chips, and by the 102nd minute the cone had been empty for ages. That’s historic. I’m weighing my words.
Historic for Beveren first. First point away from home this season. And Beveren had taken no points in their five matches where they were behind. Behind 3-1, behind 4-3, and they come back. Olatunji equalises in the 88th, then with a header in the 102nd. Two goals, both off the bench. Lokesa too, on a few seconds before he scored. The bench is in a good place, you can tell.
Historic for Westerlo as well. Saito opens the scoring, Bassette scores twice, one of them a penalty awarded by referee Letellier, and Saito adds a second penalty late on. The club was on 12 out of 12 and came close to a first 15 out of 15 in the top flight. Coming close to a record is already historic. Well, not bad.
The only problem is the WhatsApp group. At 3-1, I’d written “historic”. At 3-3, my brother-in-law replied “historic too”. At 4-3, I put “historic” again. At 4-4, nobody wrote anything for six minutes. Twelve members. The longest silence in the group’s history.
Issame Charaï, the Westerlo head coach, said he was disappointed by Laalaoui’s red card, “but you win and lose together”, he told Sporza. Viktor Boone, for his part, told Sporza it was “a big release”.
Silly question, but if both are historic, who won?
Nobody, Louise. One point each. Now we take it one game at a time, you know.
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
