The Jupiler League has three teams in the knock-out stages of the Europa League and all three are playing today. The three – Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Standard Liege – all topped their groups and all have good chances of reaching the last 16, thereby enhancing Belgium’s UEFA coefficient.
Standard (6th) are first out on Sunday, against champions Racing Genk (7th). Standard are without captain Jelle Van Dame and lead striker Meme Tchite and they will miss both. Genk lack Kevin De Bruyne and Anthony Vanden Borre but their side seems stronger than of late and they could be relaxing now the European struggles are over. Although Standard have not lost at home this season, their own European travels may leave the players a tad tired. Genk could be strong enough to get a point at least.
Next out are Anderlecht (1st) and Club Brugge (2nd) who both play at six o’clock. Anderlecht are at home to Lokeren and they may also find it hard to list themselves for the Jupiler League after their five goals against Lokomotiv Moscow. Anderlecht could go with Lukas Marecek in midfield and with Dieumerci Mbokani in attack.
Club Brugge, now just two points behind Anderlecht, go to Leuven and should get the victory – perhaps by a score of 1-0 (as in their previous four games). Bojan Jorgacevic is back in goal for Club Brugge and Victor Vazquez looks likely to be playmaker rather than Lior Rafaelov.
In the final game, Cercle Brugge (5th) play Gent (3rd) in the match that was postponed on Friday night. Cercle are strong at home and may just scrape a victory against a Gent side that is having problems putting away the chances made by their many creative players.
Saturday’s scores were:
Lierse 2 Kortrijk 0
Sint Truiden 0 KV Mechelen 0
Zulte Waregem 2 Mons 3
Westerlo 3 Beerschot 2