Killie draw with Cercle Brugge in Europa League qualifier first leg

Kilmarnock have drawn with Cercle Brugge in the first-leg of their Europa League qualifier.

A goal a-piece in the second-half seen the game finish 1-1 at Rugby Park on Thursday night.

Former Ross County player Kazeem Olaigbe put Brugge ahead with an unstoppable strike at the start of the second-half before David Watson capped off a period of Kilmarnock pressure with a headed equaliser.

The result leaves next week’s second leg on a knife-edge when Derek McInnes and his side travel to Belgium looking to continue their Europa League journey.

Both sides had their moments in the opening stages with Robby McCrorie, who was making his competitive debut since signing from Rangers, producing a string of saves to keep the score level.

Despite having a lot of possession in the first-45 Kilmarnock’s chances were few and far between with the best opportunity coming from a ball into the box from Matt Kennedy but Kyle Vassell failed to get a touch on it as it drifted wide.

Any slight touch from the captain would likely have given the home side an invaluable lead but it remained 0-0 going into half-time.

Brugge came out of the traps the quickest after the break and took the game to Kilmarnock in the early stages of the second-half.

And they took the lead around ten-minutes after the restart when Olaigbe produced a fantastic strike that gave McCrorie no chance and put the Belgians 1-0 up.

They came close to doubling the lead just moments later but the Kilmarnock goalkeeper kept them in it with another good save before the rebound was sliced past the post.

The home side had the ball in the net on the hour-mark but Stuart Findlay’s header was ruled out by the assistant referee for the ball drifting out of play on its way into the box from a corner.

Killie now had their tails up and started to put some real pressure on the Brugge box and had a flurry of corners as they looked for the equaliser.

And they got what they were looking for when a long-throw into the box caused all-sorts of problems for the defence and Vassell got a flick on before Watson headed it in the net to make it 1-1 with 20 minutes on the clock.

Vassell initially thought he got the final touch but replays showed that it was the 19-year-old’s goal.

Killie kept on the front-foot for the remainder the game and will probably feel as though they should have got the vital win to hang on to.

They nearly snatched it in injury time but Warleson in the Brugge goals done well to keep it level and give them a draw to take back to Belgium.