Today is the first day of the Playoffs to see who will be crowned champions of Belgium for 2021-22. The top four clubs from the ‘regular season’ – Union Saint-Gilloise, Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Royal Antwerp – will play each other twice, home and away. The twist is that the points gained to-date have been… Read More »
The Belgian press on both sides of the language divide were not impressed by the teams’ performance last night but the criticism was tempered by arguments that this was only a friendly and the World Cup was not due to start yet. Vincent Kompany’s injury overshadowed events with confirmation of the extent of the injury… Read More »
When Roberto Martinez opened his press conference earlier today, he could have said, ‘The players who got us to Russia have done a great job but as a country we are lucky enough to have one of the game’s top midfielders who didn’t participate much in the qualifiers. Radja Nainggolan can come into the squad… Read More »
Last night, Racing Genk defeated Royal Antwerp 4-0. The visitors widely criticised for physical play and questionable tactics. They were down to 10 men by half time. **************************************************** Just three games to go in the JPL classic season and Playoff qualification is going to the wire. Three teams – Club Brugge, Charleroi and Anderlecht –… Read More »
With just four games remaining in the JPL classic league, the front-runners are all faltering. Leaders Club Brugge looked a class above the rest prior to the winter break but they have only taken six points from their last five matches. Closest to them are Charleroi and Anderlecht and those two have identical form to… Read More »
1. Without Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium do not look like a team to be feared. 2. Yet again, Belgium looked short of ideas against a packed defence. But see 1. 3. Radja Nainggolan has been playing in an advanced role for Roma but he is lost out wide. 4. The squad is… Read More »
The top four clubs (Club Brugge, Anderlecht, Zulte Waregem and Oostende) all won last weekend while Gent replaced Charleroi – whom they defeated – in the top six. The most impressive display came from Club Brugge who won 3-0 against a disappointing Standard Liege at Sclessin. For Brugge, Colombian winger José Izquierdo was outstanding and… Read More »
Watching the Netherlands-Belgium game last night with its plethora of Belgians who play, or have played, for Chelsea, a chance conversation led to a challenge to pick an eleven of such players. I tried but I needed to take a little poetic licence in order to field a full team; I did this by adding… Read More »
The Belgian second division starts tonight and – surprisingly – it only has eight clubs. In an effort to reduce the number of clubs facing financial ruin, the number of professional clubs in Belgium has been reduced from from 34 to 24: 16 in the Jupiler Pro League (the first division) and eight in the… Read More »
Playoffs 1 The big winners of the third round of matches were Michel Preud’homme and Hein van Haezebrouck. The latter’s team, Gent, became the first team to win a ‘Playoff 01’ match on an away ground when they went to Sclessin and easily defeated a poor Standard Liege. Preud’homme’s Club Brugge looked to be down… Read More »