Royal Antwerp vs Sporting Charleroi

Royal Antwerp host Sporting Charleroi in a great game to start off Sunday’s Pro League action. Antwerp currently occupy the final championship play-off spot, whilst Charleroi are only five points back in seventh, right in the midst of the second round of play-off positions. Antwerp do have a game in hand, which gives them some degree of comfort, although they will hope to win this game and start to open up a gap on the chasing pack. Antwerp have some fitness concerns ahead of this game, with potential for near ever-present defender and midfielder De Laet and Verstraete to be missing out, however they have a solid squad and any replacements will be of a decent standard. Main man Michael Frey has scored almost half of their goals this season and fans of The Reds will be glad that there are no question marks over his head. 

Both sides have similar attacking and defensive records this season, although Antwerp just edge Charleroi in this regard. Whilst Charleroi’s home games have been quiet affairs by the standard of Belgium’s top flight, on the road there have been goals aplenty for The Zebras. Earlier in the season these tended to be tight games with both teams scoring, but before the winter break their fixtures had become more one-sided, with all but one of their last five away games seeing a two-goal cushion for the winning side.

Antwerp, by contrast, are more reliable having scored at least once in every home game since their first game of the season; an impressive run of 9 fixtures in a row, in which seven of these fixtures have seen them scoring two or more goals. In their last eight home fixtures they have only dropped points twice, once against second-placed Club Brugge (a creditable 1-1 draw), and once against Standard Liege, although we can excuse them for this given they played with a man down for the entire second half, and yet were still 2-1 up in the 86th minute.

Charleroi are a good side, and though I expect Antwerp to win, they could potentially run them close, and that is why I am choosing to go for Draw No Bet over Antwerp outright.

KAS Eupen vs Cercle Brugge

What seems on paper to be a tight midtable battle between eleventh and twelfth awaits us next at Eupen’s Kehrwegstadion. The Pandas and the much more dully-nicknamed Green and Blacks have identical 7-4-10 records after 21 games played, with Cercle Brugge scoring slightly less, but conceding less than their hosts for this game. The reverse fixture saw Eupen take all three points in Bruges, with a 2-1 victory on the road, in a tight game that they did just about edge. However, this does not really tell you the full story of this game.

Form only counts for so much when we are forced to look back across a three-week long winter break, however, these two sides had been moving in opposite directions before the league was halted. Eupen had one win and four defeats in their last five, whilst Cercle had four wins and one defeat. Cercle Brugge also have the remarkable record of scoring in every single away match they have played in this season, with only league leaders Union SG and Antwerp able to match their record. Their last game before the break saw them beat city rivals and second-placed side Club Brugge 2-0, while in the game before they were unlucky not to take points away from home to runaway league leaders Union SG, losing 3-2 to a last-minute own goal. 

Eupen meanwhile have won just once since October 3rd, a 1-0 win at home to Beerschot who are already marooned at the foot of the Pro League table. Having started strongly with six wins and two draws in their first ten games (20 points out of 30), Eupen have dropped like a stone since then, and they have shown little sign of rallying, scoring just nine goals in eleven games, and taking 5 points from a possible 33. 

The winter break may have come at the worst time for an in-form Cercle and the best possible time for a Eupen side that was crashing and burning, however it is hard to see anything other than a Cercle victory in this game, and that’s exactly what I’ll be backing here.

Anderlecht vs Standard Liege

Vincent Kompany’s Anderlecht were arguably the form side in the division before the winter break. They have lost just two of their last 15 league fixtures. Whilst earlier in the season they struggled to turn draws into wins, they have recently been able to shift this mental block and are on a run of seven league games unbeaten, five wins and two draws. Their last game saw them win 7-0 away from home, admittedly against bottom-of-the-table Beerschot, but Liege are hovering just above in fifteenth place, just one spot above Seraing who were recently beaten 5-0 at home by the Brussels side. 

Anderlecht are massive favourites for this one and rightly so. Liege have recently lost to several teams around them, including Leuven and Waregem, while their only victories since September have come at home to a Eupen side in freefall, and Antwerp, where they were fortunate to win despite being a man up for the entire second half, conceding twice while 11v10, and requiring two late goals against a tiring defence.

Goals also seem assured in this game, Anderlecht being joint-top scorers with 50 goals in 21 games, and Liege having seen over 2.5 goals land in seven of ten away fixtures this season, and over 3.5 landing in exactly half. Anderlecht have not failed to find the back of the net at Lotto Park yet this season, scoring 25 times in ten games, for an average of 2.5 goals per game from themselves alone, and 3.9 goals per game in total. I expect Anderlecht to win comfortably, but given they have only kept two clean sheets in 10 home fixtures, Liege could well contribute to the goal tally as well. 

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