RAAL La Louvière – KVC Westerlo

The very first encounter with Les Loups (the Wolves) of La Louvière dates back to 24/09/1994, when the match at the Kuipje ended in a 0-0 draw. It was a top match (between the numbers 3 and 4) on the sixth match day in what was then the Second Division. Since then, we have played each other 18 times: 7 wins and 4 draws. The last time we played each other was in 2019, at the then Stade du Tivoli, with a 1-2 win thanks to goals from Stephen Buyl and Guillaumle De Schryver, allowing our Kemphanen to advance to the next round of the Croky Cup.

Last season

There were no encounters to report, as La Louvière secured promotion to the top division with the same number of points as champions Zulte Waregem. 

Current season

The teams ranked 7th to 14th in the table are very close together. We are 9th and La Louvière is 11th. In their home games, they are a solid block and there is little spectacle: Standard (0-2), Charleroi (1-0), Union (0-0), Club Brugge (1-0) and Zulte Waregem (0-0). The four highest-rated players are all central defenders: goalkeeper Marcos Peano and the trio of central defenders Wagane Faye, Yllan Okou and Djibril Lamego. The top scorer is Jerry Afriyie with two goals. In total, they have scored seven times, with three of those goals coming from own goals by their opponents.

Squads

KVC Westerlo: Jungdal, Reynolds, Bayram, Kimura, Rommens, Haspolat, Piedfort, Sayyadmanesh, Sakamoto, Alcocer, Nacho Ferri, Van Langendonck, Lapage, Bujupi, Cordero, Vaesen, Yow, Fixelles, Mbamba, Van Den Keybus, Annell, Neustädter, Mebude, Sydorchuk, Smekens, Bernat. 

RAAL: Peano, Faye, Okou, Lamego, Liongola, Maës, Lahssani, Ito, Lutonda, Belkheir, Afriyie, De Schrevel, Maisonneuve, Gillot, Benavides, Gueulette, Pau, Guindo, Mendy and Fall

Goals + Assists KVC Westerlo

1.    Josimar Alcocer – 6

2.    Isa Sakamoto – 5

3.    Nacho Ferri – 5

Goals + Assists RAAL

1.    Jerry Afriyie – 2

2.    Wagane Faye – 2

3.    83 players – 1

Referee

29-year-old Massimiliano Ledda will referee this match. La Louvière is the team he has refereed the most (11 times), we have faced him twice, both times at the Kuipje, resulting in two victories: RWDM (2-1) and Dender (4-2). A remarkable fact is that in these two encounters, he awarded no fewer than five penalties, three for us and two for our opponents.