Line-up: Mercelis; Philpot, Lachia, Minne, Bernardo; Donner, De Roeck, McGeehan, Novak, Gimeno Blanco; Kellermann

Subs: Ouellette, Van Dijck

A fine day to play football at Rosières, and a fine day to follow up on the win over Portugal last week, against an opponent we often struggle with.

The first half of this fine game is something both teams will be happy to forget, however. Bad touches, awful passing, Jean having to come off with a bad knee after only ten minutes … nothing seemed to be going our way this time. Fortunately, LXG seemed to lack the cutting edge needed to take advantage of our confused state, despite one very clear chance where Kris may or may not have saved the ball outside the box.

What was to blame, the unusual formation and line-up perhaps? Or could it have been the historic fact that none of the eminent trio of Hodgson–McGrath–Lamarra could be found in the line-up? Many competing theories were suggested, until we settled on the absence of post-match bagels as the most probable explanation.

The second half didn’t exactly offer our loyal supporters (thank you) our best football, but for around 15 minutes we did manage to create some pressure in the LXG half of the pitch. Daniel received the ball on the right flank, and not having anyone to pass or flick it to this time, had to drive up all the way to outside the LXG penalty box. There, a bumpy pass found Richard on the other side of the box, who penetrated the LXG line with a Pogba-esque first touch and then slotted in the ball in the bottom corner, 1–0.

Richard then had another goal through a trademark curved corner that went straight in via the hands of the otherwise well-playing LXG keeper. 2–0 for the good guys and life was looking brighter again.

Unfortunately, we had reached our quota of 15 minutes of decent football, and the away side started to play the ball in our half, with a couple of good substitutes bringing on some more finesse. On our side, William had already come on for Jean in the first half and did well to hold the left flank, while Sioux was subbed on to offer Tommy some relief as the lone striker.

Things got a little bit nervous when LXG finally did manage to score their opening goal off a corner, but apart from a few set pieces our solid defence was never properly tested. This time, a short bust of our a-game was enough for the three points, but we all know we have to do better than that in our remaining games.

MoM and Reporter: Daniel Donner