They say 90 minutes is a long time in football. It’s true. Last Sunday at 18.00, Anderlecht were firm favourites to win a fourth successive Belgian title. With two home games and a visit to a totally demotivated Kortrijk, the championship was in the bag. At 19.45, Anderlecht’s dreams were in tatters. A home draw… Read More »
Playoffs 1 Gent’s away from in the Playoffs has been excellent and they showed no sign of changing their habits with a 3-2 win at the Jan Breydel stadium. Obviously, Michel Preud’homme’s men are tiring after playing over 60 games but that shouldn’t detract from the job that Hein Vanhaezebrouck has done in his first… Read More »
Playoffs 1: Gent under pressure If this was a horse race, Anderlecht would be the favourite – having won its last three races – who is moving through the pack and is nicely positioned with a few furlongs to go. In fact, as this is Belgium, the race has already been completed over 3 ½… Read More »
Playoffs 1 With Club Brugge and Gent both winning during the week, those two clubs remain at the top of the table with Anderlecht slipping back. With five games left, the league now looks like a two-horse race but Anderlecht have three home games in their last four so can’t be written off. Standard Liege… Read More »
Playoffs 1 There were important wins for Anderlecht and Charleroi as the playoffs approached the halfway stage. Plumbing the depths were Standard Liege who lost again and were roundly condemned by many. Michel Preud’homme’s Club Brugge again looked to be down and out – this time at Gent – but once more they fought back… 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 »
With Charly Musonda Jr. wearing the number 10 shirt for Chelsea as they won the 2015 UEFA Youth League by beating Shakhtar Donetsk, it’s time for a look back at where he came from and some thoughts about where he’s going. I’ve seen Musonda play – live – on two occasions. The first time was… Read More »
Playoffs 1 In the second round of matches, as in the first, all three home teams won. This means that the positions in the table are exactly the same as at the end of the classic season. The performance of the second round came from Standard Liege who defeated Anderlecht 3-1 with two goals and… Read More »
Playoffs 1 During the first weekend of the Playoffs 1, all of the three top teams won. Neither Anderlecht nor Club Brugge played particularly well but they took the three points, as did Gent. Standard were particularly unlucky at the Jan Breydel stadium as they lost to two penalties, the second of which was extremely… Read More »
The main JPL Playoffs (see here) started this weekend. (Ed: Gent beat Kortrijk 2-0). The top six (Club Brugge, Gent, Standard Liege, Anderlecht, Charleroi and Kortrijk) will play each other twice in the next six weeks. The clubs receive half of the points gained in the “classic” season. So the clubs started as follows: Club… Read More »