Few people would have given Kortrijk’s new head coach Freyr Alexandersson any chance of keeping the side in the league when he took over in January. They had not won since a 1-0 victory over Club Brugge back in October, picking up just two points from the following nine games. The victory over Club Brugge was also just their second win of the season. Kortrijk ended the pre-winter break period of the Belgian Pro League bottom of the table with just 10 points.
Yet, under Alexandersson, the side went to Standard Liege and picked up their third win of the season. Felipe Avenatti, a former Standard player, scored the only goal of the game and just his third goal of the season in a 1-0 win. Kortrijk had conceded 44 goals in just 20 games before that, but also managed to grab a rare clean sheet thanks to Lucas Pirard. The 28-year-old Belgian goalkeeper made four saves in his debut for the club. New defensive signing Haruya Fujii also impressed at the back, making 11 clearances and eight recoveries.
The gap is still at eight points, a big difference for the side to make up, but they finally showed some signs of life and fight. Alexandersson is under no illusions of the difficult task ahead of him, but he could not have started much better.
GBeNeFNÂ |Â Ben Jackson
