Wins for AA Gent and KV Mechelen
In the last two First Division games of the weekend AA Gent narrowed the gap with the league leaders Club Brugge thanks to a 0-2 win away at KRC Genk. Later in the evening KV Mechelen enjoyed an historic 1-2 win away at Standard de Liège.
It has been an excellent week for AA Gent. On Thursday they beat the German side Wolfburg to claim top spot in their Europa League group and on Sunday evening a 0-2 win away at KRC Genk saw them leapfrog over Standard into second place in the Belgian First Division. Meanwhile, the result further weakens the position of the Genk Coach Felice Mazzu. The reigning league champions are now 9th in the league with 20 points from 14 games.
AA Gent’s goals came early in the first and second half. Laurent Depoitre opened the scoring for the Buffaloes on 2 minutes. The goal was scored on the rebound after Mohammadi’s shot had been saved by Coucke. The rest of the half saw little in the way of real chances from either side, although the Genk keeper Coucke can than think himself lucky that Depoitre was unable to make the most of his somewhat dithering intervention to block a long pass.
The second half started almost identically to the first. This time it was AA Gent’s Canadian goal-getter Jonathan David that did the honours, putting the Buffales two-up on 47 minutes.
Gent defended strongly and Genk never really looked as though they would be able salvage something from the game. The match ended 0-2 in AA Gent’s favour. AA Gent are now second in the league with 28 points from 14 games. This is 5 points less than the league-leaders Club Brugge. KRC Genk have also played 14 games and are 9th with 20 points.
Standard lose at home for the first time this season
Standard de Liège have lost a league match at home for the first time this season. KV Mechelen beat them 1-2 in Liège on Sunday evening. The result sees Standard slip back to third place in the league. KV Mechelen are now 4th and level on points with Standard.
Boosted by their Europa League win against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, Standard went on the offensive. However they were unable to get passed a strong KV Mechelen defence. Rob Schoofs opened the scoring for KV Mechelen on 15 minutes with a free-kick that Messi would have been proud of. It wasn’t until 5 minutes before half time that the KV Mechelen keeper Thoelen was given anything to do. He saved Bastien’s shot and the half finished with the visitors 0-1 up.
It was a former Standard player Igor De Camargo (photo below) that scored KV Mechelen’s second goal of the evening on 65 minutes. The Standard Coach Michel Preud’Homme brought in Medhi Carcela in an effort to turn things around. He provided Lestienne with an excellent chance, but he shot miles over. 5 minutes from Selim Amallah scored a goal that would ensure an exciting end to the game.
Could Standard salvage a point? Amallah put the ball into the back of the net for a second time a couple of minutes later. However, the VAR judged that goal had come about due to handball and it was disallowed. This triggered angry scenes on the pitch. This did nothing to change the score though and when the final whistle blew KV Mechelen were 1-2 victors.
