Having won an important point in Leuven, we will look for even more important points on Sunday to be ready to embark on D-day on the final matchday.

KVC Westerlo

Many Westel supporters will be keeping a close eye on this weekend’s results. Direct competitors, by which we mean the teams that have exactly counted one point more, play their meetings just before us.  Mechelen will visit Charleroi, Dender and Cercle Brugge will play the numbers 1 (Genk) and 2 (Club Brugge) of the rankings respectively.

With Anderlecht, we also get a tough customer. Starting from our own strength – we create enough chances and stoppages time and time again – is the message or will we park the bus as we did against Standard?

Coach Timmy Simons at least has a fairly large core at his disposal.  Of the 30 A-core players, only two are not eligible for Sunday’s squad: Baka Haidara and Jordan Bos, who took the plane to Australia this week to rehabilitate in family. Alfie Devine and Allayhar Sayyadmanesh will undergo a final test to see how many playing minutes they will get.

Every year, the media picks up on what took place in 1998 and 2000, when Anderlecht came to lose heavily each time at Kuipje. However, since that day in the Millennium year, we could only win 4 times against the Brusselers in 21 encounters on Kempen soil. Whatever the result, it will only be known on the last matchday, which games we still have to play in the next 2 months.

RSC Anderlecht

Did you know that Anderlecht are the best away team this season? Only 4 games they lost: Genk, Club Brugge, Gent and … Beerschot. Top marksman Kasper Dolberg – 20 goals in 35 games this season – is normally sidelined. His replacement, Argentine Luis Vazquez also found his way to goal 7 times already.As a matter of fact, anyone can score for the purple-white team, as many as 20 different players have already made the net shake this season, and with Colin Coosemans they have the best goalkeeper in our league.

Three players are apparently in the pre-selection of our new national coach: right-back Killian Sardella, midfielder Leander Dendoncker and winger Thorgan Hazard, who only got his first playing minutes at the end of December after a long injury. There are also 2 players who saw their worldwide market value skyrocket: defender Jan-Carlo Simic, who is even the best riser in our league, and Mexican winger César Huerta.

Referee

Jan Boterberg drops down to the Kuipje for the third time this season. On matchday 5 we then played against OHL (1-1) and on matchday 23 we hosted Genk (1-2). In those 8.5 years of refereeing in the highest divisions, he has already met him 8 times, with the result that we are still looking for that first three-pointer with him.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons