Former Fulham U-23 and current Standard Liege defender Marlon Fossey was on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline against Antwerp, while Bryan Reynolds made his return from injury in Westerlo’s road draw.
Antwerp 4 – 1 Standard Liege
Sam Vines is still out of action due to his injury but Marlon Fossey got the nod for Standard Liege and played 91 minutes, coming out in stoppage time as les Rouches came away empty handed from Antwerp.
The young American and his colleagues gave up three goals to the Antwerp attack, and also their midfielder Merveille Bokadi gifted an own-goal to the Flemish side’s tally. The other RAFC goals came from Vincent Janssen (two) and Arbnor Muja. Steven Alzate found the back of the net for the visitors.
It only took third-place Antwerp eight minutes to light up the scoreboard, thanks to Janssen’s 13th goal of the season. The Dutchman got his head onto Jelle Bataille’s cross inside the box and easily beat Arnaud Bodart between the Standard posts.
Twenty minutes later, after a defensive slip-up at the other end, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and his Kosovar colleague, Muja were racing down the field and played a couple passes in front of goal before the Balkan’s striker let it rip and rippled the net for his second of the season.
The visitors got one back before the half, in the 40th minute when Alzate scored for only the second time that came from a free kick. The life-line was short lived however because two minutes later, from a corner kick, Standard’s sent a beautiful headed goal past his own keeper to make it 3-1.
The final goal came in the dying minutes of full time with the big Dutchman completing his brace.
It seems that Antwerp feels that the big Dutchman will provide enough goals for the remainder of the season because they sold their goal machine center-forward Michael Frey to Schalke this month. The Swiss striker had netted 31 times in the past season and a half in Royal Antwerp red.
Next up for The Great Old will be a Sunday matinee in Brussels against Anderlecht, while Fossey and les Rouches will host Eupen.
Notes
Bryan Reynolds returned from injury to play the full game in defense, while Griffin Yow didn’t make the bench this week as KVC Westerlo managed to pick up a point on the road against Zulte Waregem on Saturday afternoon. They now sit in seventh place, which is good enough for the second play-off (European places) group with a dozen games left before those play-offs roll around. This weekend they’ll host Mechelen.
Jorge Hernandez did not make the team sheet when Mechelen hosted and beat Kortrijk on Saturday night by a 3-2 score line. Up next for the Kakkers will be a Saturday afternoon trip to take on Westerlo. They now sit in 13th place, five points from the relegation zone but also just six points from the second play-off group.
Mark McKenzie and Genk had the weekend off as their trip to Eupen was postponed due to heavy snowfall in the Belgian Ardennes.
