Marlon Fossey and Standard continued their positive streak, while Eupen and Gabriel Slonina kept to their losing ways in this weekend’s Belgian action.
OH Leuven 1 – 2 Standard Liege
Marlon Fossey put in a 70-minute shift for les Rouches as they got back to winning ways on Saturday night at Den Dreef with a 2-1 victory over OHL. A strike in both halves was enough to get the job done, despite the hosts fighting back midway through the seconf half.
After a near miss in the 42nd minute, the visitors made good two minutes later when Steven Alzate sent in a deep ball to Wilfried Kanga, who controlled well and put the ball past Maxence Prévot for his third goal of the season.
Halfway through the second half it was all square. Jon Thorsteinsson played Hamza Mendyl through the Standard defense with a very good ball and watched the Moroccan winger find the back of the net.
Les Rouches’ game winner came with less than ten minutes left on the clock. It was Kamal Sowah who scored against his former club.
Undefeated in their last five games, they’ll try to make it six when Club Brugge comes to town over the weekend.
Genk 3 – 3 Westerlo
It was a battle of Yanks that didn’t happen as Mark McKenzie took no part when his Smurfs hosted Bryan Reynolds and Westerlo. The Texan played the full 90 minutes and helped his side fight back from a 3-1 deficit to earn a valuable point.
A straight red card for Christopher Bonsu Baah just before the half time whistle was detrimental in the visitors’ comeback.
Genk only took ten minutes to take the lead after Daniel Munoz found the back of the net. Lucas Stassin was gifted a goal 19 minutes later after Reynolds defensive pass to Carlos Cuesta, who almost put the ball past his own keeper. Unfortunately for the Colombian, Stassin was the recipient of the rebound and blasted it into the back of the Genk net.
The lead was regained on the strike of 45 minutes thanks to defender Joris Kayembe’s first goal of the season after Reynolds seemed to be napping when the cross came into the box.
But again, a positive is followed by a negative and this was the sending off. A shocked Christopher Bonsu Baah was shown a straight red card from referee Wesli De Cremer in first half stoppage time.
The Ghanaian briefly waved his hand in Thomas Van den Keybus’ face as they were battling for the ball. It was a hand, not an elbow as the referee assumed. The decision was ridiculous but gave Westerlo a man-advantage for the entire second half.
It wasn’t the visitors however who took advantage of their advantage the Limburgers who made it 3-1 just four minutes after the re-start; it was Paintsil this time. The hosts however just could not kill off the game and saw their opponents score twice more, in the 59th and 88th minutes.
On the negative side for Westerlo, with just one point earned and Kortrijk winning their game, Westerlo now finds themselves in last place. Next time out they’ll go up against KVK and Alex Mighten.
Eupen 1 – 3 Anderlecht
It wasn’t a good day for Chelsea loanee, Gabriel Slonina when his Eupen side went up red hot Anderlecht and the young American pulled the ball out of the back of his net on three occasions as the Pandas lost their fourth game in a row.
Anders Dreyers scored les Mauves’ first of the afternoon in the very first minute. Isaac Nuhu brought the hosts back into the game in the 38th minute and this was how the half ended, one apiece.
It was the second half that saw the game get away from the Pandas however with Belgian defender Rune Paeshuyse putting the ball past his American keeper to gift a lead that they would not relinquish but add to it in the 88th minute by Luis Vasquez.
The loss leaves Eupen in 11th place, just a point out of the last relegation play-off spot. The Pandas will travel to Antwerp over the weekend to take on a Sam Vine-less Royal Antwerp.
Notes
Alex Mighten didn’t make the team sheet when Kortrijk found the game winner against Cercle Brugge in the 92nd minute. The 2-1 win takes them out of last place. They’ll play next against Bryan Reynolds and KVC Westerlo
Kahveh Zahiroleslam didn’t make the game day roster when Sint-Truiden travelled to Brugge to take on Club and came away with a share of the points as the contest ended 1-1. He’ll hope to get some game time this weekend when the Canaries host Union St Gilloise.
Still missing due to injury, Sam Vines missed teh 0-0 stalemate between the Belgian champions and KV Mechelen. Next up for Antwerp will be a contest against Eupen.