Tahith Chong.

Chong sparkles on Club Brugge start

Tuesday 23 February 2021 11:03

Tahith Chong made the most of a first league start for Club Brugge in a 3-0 victory over OH Leuven in Monday night's Belgian top-flight encounter.

The runaway leaders collected another three points and the Manchester United loanee was instrumental in the success, providing an assist and earning a penalty.

Rik De Mil was in charge, with coach Philippe Clement in quarantine, and said afterwards: "We played with a great mix of experienced players and young, raw talented players. That worked out fine."

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Chong's pass led to youngster Ignace van der Brempt opening the scoring after only eight minutes and then the dangerous wide-man burst past keeper Rafael Romo to prompt an obvious foul, enabling Ruud Vormer to net from the spot. Clinton Mata added a third late on.

Our Academy product was heavily involved, forcing a save out of Venezuela international Romo, crossing dangerously and having a clear run on goal halted by an offside flag, before being withdrawn in the 89th minute.

"What a great move for Chongy," enthused Academy player performance manager Les Parry. "He’s gone to a team at the top of the league whey they can relax, play their football and express themselves a little bit more. It’s difficult when you’re in the middle of the league and one of the first things you look at doing is not being beaten.

"That changes the whole outlook on the game so he found it a little bit difficult to get minutes. The decision was taken by our manager to try to move him on and Brugge came up. I think everybody feels it’s going to be a good fit.

"He does need football. For some of the younger players, the ones less experienced than Tahith, playing isn’t the be all and end all – especially on their first loans. But, for somebody like Chongy, he’s played a few games for the first team so it’s more important that he plays football. The hope is he’ll play a lot more now and we can almost guarantee that he will play more than he did in Germany so it will be a good move for him."

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