Against a well-organised and strong footballing STVV, our Kemphans were unable to make a fist and had to submit to the law of the strongest. On the plus side, however, our travelling supporters had a lot of fun during their carnival move, keeping the atmosphere up the whole time.

KVC Westerlo

Logically, coach Rik De Mil opted to start Matija Frigan, in place of the unfortunate Romeo Vermant, at the Daio Wasabi Stayen. Kyan Vaesen got his first selection (as a bench player) of 2024 after having to be sidelined for 7 weeks with an injury. Tuur Rommens, after his mandatory 2-week suspension, was not 100 per cent fit this time, having been in bed with a fever 2 days before the match. 3 more finals to go, before we finally start to know which opponents we will have to face again this season.

The past has shown that you should not start counting, and that first of all you just have to keep the three points against Charleroi at home, which would already be a very big step towards play-off 2. The outward game was lost at Mazzu-time and, by the way, was the last of the outward round, which we then finished with 11 points on the 45 to be earned. Since then, we’ve climbed out of a slump and only Union (+30p), Anderlecht (+26p), Club Brugge (+22p), Antwerp and KV Mechelen (+21p) and Genk (+19p) are doing better than us, we’ve since achieved an 18 out of 36. This will be the ^20th mutual clash at the Kuipje. Our last win dates back to December 2015 when we won 2-1 that night, 2 goals from Fred Gounongbe. The past 2 editions were both lost, last season 2-3 with another Mazzu-time and the year before it was 0-2.

RSC Charleroi

The Zebras have the worst record this season, as they have not won a single match away from home, in the regular league. Only on the field of Thes Sport, match for the Croky Cup, they have already won. They lost 9 times and they drew 4 times, each time 0-0 (Genk, RWDM, Standard and OH Leuven). Five goals they also only managed to score on loan. The term Mazzu-time is not out of the blue, as no less than 48% of their goal production are scored in the last quarter of playing time.

There is no player who came to the kick-off in all matches, Cypriot defender Andreou and Slovenian flanker Rogelj coming close with their 24 starting places. Then again, the player who came into action the most matches is our Daan Heymans. Daan was deployed in 26 games, 15 as a base player and 11 as a substitute, and he scored one goal this current season, against … Westerlo. In the top shooters’ standings, we see 3 players with 4 goals: captain Ilaimaharitra, midfielder Guiagon and striker Dabbagh.

Last week they lost 0-1 against Genk, a game in which defenders Van Cleemput and Knezevic had to leave the field early with injury. In fact, Knezevic had come on to replace Van Cleemput when he had to leave the pitch himself 20 minutes later. Charleroi will certainly want to win this game. On paper, we are the easiest task for them, as afterwards they still have to play at home against Cercle Brugge and on the final matchday away to AA Gent

Bram Van Driessche

• This will be his ^20th game in the Belgian league this season (18 JPL and 2 CC)
• His third for Westerlo, having previously whistled Charleroi vs Westerlo (3-2) and Antwerp vs Westerlo (2-2)
• All-time this will be his fourth appearance at the Kuipje: Westerlo vs Oostende (3-0), Westerlo vs Charleroi (2-1) and Westerlo vs Zulte Waregem (1-2)
• In other words, he was our referee when we won for the last time in a home match against Charleroi
• All-time stats: 3x wins, 6x draws and 3 defeats

Text and stats: Peter Boons