Taking a deserved point away from the league leaders, it was not given away to everyone. Afterwards, the journalists present at the press conference highlighted the VAR intervention in that 96th minute, but also that Westerlo were in third place to pick up another goal after regular playing time.

KVC Westerlo

Top marksman Nicolas Madsen may have surprisingly taken a place on the bench for the outside world, but he was uncertain until the last minute. Therefore, coach De Mil decided to start with Sayyadmanesh on the flank and play Thomas Van Den Keybus out in Madsen’s role.

For the rest, our coach stuck to the same starting eleven, keeping in mind that the substitutes are super important to turn the match around, which is what happened in Union. The foul in the big rectangle was made on Matija Frigan and ice rabbit Madsen poked his 11 league goal against the nets.

Benjamin, our equipment man, does get a bit nervous, as he made a bet with Nico when he gets to 15 goals. The stakes are left in limbo for now.

Sinan, Sergii and Edi still have to watch out for another yellow cardboard, otherwise they would be automatically suspended in the next match.

If we go back in time, we see that in the last 6 clashes at the Kuip, we did not lose a single one: 3 wins and 3 draws. Last season, we faced Liège twice, winning twice: on matchday 4 4-2, goals by Vetokele, Nene, Foster and an own goal by Laursen and in playoff 2, De Cuyper and twice Nene ensured a 3-0 victory.

Standard Liege

On 4 January, Ivan Leko was introduced as the Rouches’ new coach. Since then, the home Sclessin saw visits from Kortrijk (0-1), Antwerp (0-1) and Leuven (1-0), and draws from Cercle Brugge (1-1) and RWDM (2-2).

Australia’s O’Neill and Japan’s Kawabe appeared in the starting line-up for the first time last week after their foray into the Asian Cup, where they were both eliminated early with their respective countries. 0’Neill immediately crowned himself match-winner with his world-class goal.

Wilfried Kanga (7) and Hayao Kawabe (6) are the two players who have already scored the most this season, with only Kamal Sowah (2) also having more than one goal on his CV this season.

Did you know?

• Standard are almost the worst in the league with 23 goals scored and that only Kortrijk have scored less in the league
• They are unbeaten in the last 4 away games
• Former bantamweight Gilles Dewaele is the player who has filled in for them most often this season, no fewer than 15 times on the pitch as a substitute
• Coach Leko has visited Kuipje once in the past? In February 2017, he then lost 1-0 with STVV

Jasper Vergoote

• This will be his 150th game in professional football, of which 134 at home and 15 international matches.
• For both Westerlo and Standard, he has already featured 11 times, including a mutual duel in August 2022 at the Kuipje, 4-2 victory for the Kemphanen

Text and statistics: Peter Boons