Anderson Esiti was on target as Gent went down 3-1 to German Bundesliga second division side, Union Berlin in Wednesday’s friendly outing.
The Nigeria international opened the scoring with his first ever strike for the Buffalos in the 12th minute. But after the interval, the Belgian top-flight shipped in three goals and never recover from the deficit.
Sebastian Polter started the comeback fight with his 50th-minute effort and five minutes later, Simon Hedlund made it 2-1.
With nine minutes left to play, Philipp Hosiner took the game beyond Yves Vanderhaeghe's men.
The combative midfielder joined the Buffalos in the summer of 2016 and has featured 22 times this season helping them to the fifth spot in the Belgian First Division A log with 32 points from 21 games.
Gent welcome Lokeren to Ghelamco Arena for their first league game of the year on January 21.
