It must be the first time, in the history of Belgian football, that, with 34 points, you are still not sure of preservation on the last matchday. A giant stride was made last week and there must be hell to pay, but still. A point at the Kiel and we should stop looking at what could possibly be happening behind us on Sunday.

KVC Westerlo

The real Westerlo stood up once again last Sunday. Yes we can! Anderlecht saw star power for 45 minutes against the resilient Kemphans. That earlier opening goal – rehearsed during the week – obviously made things a bit easier and then that clever ‘steal’ and ditto goal by our captain Dogucan Haspolat: class!

‘Do’ by the way knew what he was doing, he had deliberately chosen during the toss to let Anderlecht’s goalkeeper play against the sun: hero!

Second game in a row with a clean-sheet, this too is sterling work by our coach, his sporting staff and the performing players.

This will be the 30th game we will play at the Kiel, between the period 1993-2025, during which we recorded 7 wins and 9 draws. The last time we went home with the three points was in 2019 when we won 1-2.

We are assuming the same players will make it to the match sheet, although this time, it is possible that Allayhar Sayyadmanesh will still be included in the core after his previous back injury.

Beerschot

If you do the analysis this season, you will see that Dirk Kuyt’s team is mostly failing on the move. In 15 games, they could barely grab 2 points (including 1 at Kuipje).

However, home games are something else with their fanatical supporters: in the last 10 games, they lost only once , against Union 0-4, took the 3 points against Anderlecht (2-1), Cercle Brugge (3-2) and KV Mechelen (1-0) and played equal against Gent (0-0), Club Brugge(2-2), Standard (0-0), Kortrijk (2-2), Antwerp (1-1) and Charleroi (1-1).

In other words, great results!

Top shooter is Saudi Arabian Marwan Al Sahafi with 5 goals, followed by Daishawn Redan with 3 goals. Redan is on loan from Italian side Avellino and has also been on the payroll of Chelsea and Ajax.

Then again, Belgian Antoine Colassin is the player with the most assists (4) behind his name.

The likely eleven: Matijas, Dagba, Konstantopoulos, Mbe Soh, van der Kust, Sahabo, Al Ghamdi, Henderson, Cagro, van la Parra, Redan

Referee

Erik Lambrechts will referee one of our games for the fourth time this season, having previously refereed the game in Gent (4-1), and the home games against Antwerp (1-2) and Dender (2-0).

In total, this will be his 16th appearance for our Kemphans, in which we won 4 times and drew twice.

By the way, this 40-year-old referee from Kessel-Lo could be found in Greece last week, where he was allowed to whistle the Panathinaikos vs Fiorentina match as part of the UEFA Conference League.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons