24-03-2006 20:30 Charleroi – Standard
Oho! A very hot derby! 2 teams who are doing quite well in the competition will meet each other at Mambourg. Very hot fans, who will see a battle of Wallonie.
Both teams played a cup game thuesday and especially Charleroi will be tired.
I was really surprised to see such weak Charleroi! OK, they pressed, but almost without chances while Moeskroen had many many 100% chances. Charleroi dissapointed thousand bettors, and their own fans.. Cup final is so far now ..
Standard played also BAD! They lost to Zulte-Waregem AGAIN with 1-2 but they deserved at least a draw. After a very incredible mistake by standard defender Onyewu Zulte-Waregem scored a goal. Standard pressed but didn't score in the first half. Just before the HT Conceicao spew at Zulte-Waregem player. Ref gave RED and Conceicao was so angry that the threw his t-shirt in the FACE of the referee. Probably he won't play the last matches of the competition. 11 april he will know which sanction he'll get.
Charleroi: Chabaud is injured till the end of the season. Kere is suspended for the friday matches
Standard: De Camargo is out till end of the season. Still no other injury news, maybe some players are injured after the cup game, I don't know. Conceicao will probably play as he will know his sanction only on 11 april.
Anyway, Standard is by far a better team than Charleroi. Charleroi is very good at home, and Standard is not super away + the fact that this is a very hot derby gives me the impression that's it's typically a NO BET game. Under will maybe be a clever choise as both team will play really cautious, Standard MUST win because they are still in the running for the championship and they MUST take profit of the game Brugge-Anderlecht as at least one team will drop the points there. A perfect chance for Standard to take the first place now.
25-03-2006 20:00 Beveren - AA Gent
Another derby, this time a East-Flamish derby. Beveren who has big relegation problems will play with a team in form: Gent. Gent is THE team after the new year. They collected already 22 points after the new year, most of other 18 teams. Beveren HAS to win this one if they want to stay in Jupiler league. If they can do that, is other question. This week they will have a new president, probably Arsène Stoop + some new sponsors as Beveren has also financial problems. Junior, one of the best Beveren players leaves the club and will sign a contract with Metalurg Donetsk.
Last week, Beveren lost in Anderlecht with 4-0. It's in fact not a shamefull result because it's never easy to play against Anderlecht. But they played really bad: no organisation, without spirit, without a single chance.. New trainer De Bolle said: My players don't get that we last in the standings. Also only Belgium player in the team, keeper Verhulst, who substituted Copa (injury) said: this ivory coast players don't get that we can relegate..I can't understand that..
Gent won his game against Sint-Truiden. A logical win as the “Buffalo's” plays very good lately. THE player in Gent is playmaker Boussoufa. He played really good game, got a penalty (missed by defender Smoje) and gave assist to De Beule who scored the only goal in this game which ended in 1-0. After the goal, Gent tried to score another one, but without luck. After the HT, the visitors began to press, they said: “hey, it's only 1-0 and went to score a goal”, but they didn't created clearly chances. Gent played than weak, also without chances, and all in all it was a BORING game, KAA Boussoufa-Sint Truiden 1-0.
Gent: playmaker Boussoufa is suspended. Whole team asked him to take a yellow card (it was his third) so he is suspended for the game against Beveren, BUT he can play the week after against Brugge! Anyway, without him, is Gent very weak. Boussoufa is somebody who creates chances, he already gave 16 assists. Foley and De Beule are doubtfull. No long term injury's here.
Beveren: Copa and Joseph-Augustin are doubtfull
Hard times for Beveren and still I think that they are able to take at least a point vs Gent. No Boussoufa=NO Gent. Gent has enough good players, but without him it will be difficult. Also the fact that Gent is now current number 5 makes them happy, and they must end in top 5 to get a sponsor bonus. A NO BET game for me, but I give Beveren the advantage.
25-03-2006 20:00 Lokeren – Westerlo
Lokeren and Westerlo: 2 teams who have nothing to lose. Both clubs already searching players for next season, and they give their youth a chance to proove themselves. It's not easy to play in Daknam, but anyway 2 teams are not in form ..a boring match is coming
Lokeren lost in Charleroi with 3-1. Why? They started good, their defence was ok, one counter-attack and they scored the 0-1. After that, they stopped with playing, thinking to hold the result. Charleroi didn't managed to create much chances but after some excellent substitutions by coach Matthijsen (Akgül came in..) they began to play much better, and Akgül scored and gave also an assist. Lokeren knock-out.
Westerlo played against Brugge at home in front of sold-out stadion. They played ok, organisation was OK, they didn't played defensively (what the most teams do against “top” teams) and had several chances to score a goal. Especially Utaka had much chances to score, but wasted them all. He scored once, but it was offside. Match ended in 0-0, all in all a boring match.
Lokeren: De Vroe and Van Hoey are doubtfull, they have some heatlh problems.
Bouab Ali , Gretarsson Arnar, Drulic Goran, Van Handenhoven Gunter, Doba Lezou Hugues, Vidarsson David are the long term injured players. Nobody is suspended.
Westerlo: Owoeri, Van Imschoot, Ntuka and Wagemaker are doubtfull but can probably play.
In my opinion we will see a boring match, new Lokeren trainer is a bit defensive minded, want to get result instead of good play. So once again: poor fans. My probable result is DRAW.
25-03-2006 20:00 FC Brussels - G. Beerschot
Not much to say here: both teams are safe, and will play for some bonus money and for the fans. I hope we would get a nice game but I doubt about that. Fc Brussels has in fact a very weak team. No offensive line since De Camargo left. Beerschot is a nice offensive team and they have some good players.
Brussels won his last game in Brugge against Cercle. Once again, it was a very weak match, without chances, only a beauty of Petö who scored the goal was nice in this game. Cercle, pressed, but they were also weak that's why Brusssels won. Brussels can defend, they prooved that, and coach Cartier said: “It our priority not to conceede much goals”. “It's really important for our confidence”.
Beerschot is doing good job in the competition, they wins their home games, loses some away matches, in short: they are a mediocore team. Still, there is quality: players like Cruz, Victor, Dosunmu are good offensive power and can easily decide the game. They won last game at home against Moeskroen, they scored one goal, played well till 70' and then their defence started to quake. Moeskroen pressed a lot, but they hadn't luck, maybe a draw was a better result. Still, with this win, Germinal Beerschot is SAFE for this year, and they celebrated that with the fans!!
Germinal Beerschot: long term injured De Wree can finaly start training with the team. Van Den Weerden and Milenkovic are doubtfull..
Brussels: No injury news, and also no suspencion news..
I hate this kind of games. There won't be much chanses in this game, I hoped for a nice game with many goals, but who can score? For Brussels: nobody: only strikers Nicoise and Snelders are too unexperienced.. Maybe Germinal Beerschot can manage an away win? They have a good team, and they want to win, that's the key point...
26-03-2006 15:00 Roeselare - Cercle Brugge
Roeselare is a typically home team. They get very good resutls at home while Cercle Brugge is a very very poor traveller.
Last game Roeselare played away game in La Louviere. Like always, Roeselare didn't won. They could score because they played 11 vs 10 but even then, they didn't create much chances, and they were happy with one point. They won only 1 away game, while they won much more games at home, 5-0 against moeskroen, 4-1 against Lokeren ...
Cercle started this season very bad with only 1/18. After that they managed to win some games, and now, after losing much games after the new year, they are once again in relegation danger. Coach Veldhoven said that they won't relegate for 100% but you see: 7-0 in Standard, 6-0 in Moeskroen what than against offensive minded Roeselare? Last game they lost also against poor Brussels. Their fans were really angry and left the stadion before the final signal. There were very few fans, not more than 4000. Fans want a game for their team, and their team is afraid of each ball, they are lazy! Lazy bastards!
Cercle: Nobody is suspended. Darko Pivaljevic and Djordje Svetlicic who were long term injured, are still not fit for 100% but they are doubtfull..
Roeselare: Vaessens is suspended, otherwise no big injury worries for trainer Van Wijk..
In fact it's a very important game for Cercle Brugge. If they lose this one they will get more problems, they can even relegate this year. That's why whole club said to the player to give themselves for 100% .. Otherwise it's the question, how they will win against good organised Roeselare?
Cercle can't count to much on their fans as they say that not much of them will go to Roeselare to see their team losing once again.. I give a slightly advantage to Roeselare, because they play at home and beceuase they have a better squad, but everything here can happen, I won't surprise if the FT will be 0-1 for Cercle. That's why it's a typically NO BET game!!!
25-03-2006 20:00 Sint-Truiden – Zulte-Waregem
Sint-Truiden also a team with relegation problems receaves Germinal Beerschot who is SAFE and can't relegate anymore. A far trip for them, and probably they will play relaxed.
Sint-Truiden played not bad in Gent last week (lost 1-0) but they were just too weak for team like Gent. Little chances that they got were wasted. Anyway, I saw a good spirit in the team, a team who really want to stay in Jupiler League, and tries to “play” not only defend but also to attack, that's why I appreciate them
Zulte-Waregem, sensation this year, is the best “away” team this season. Strange, they lose sometimes at home, but they win away in front of other fans. Wednesday once again, they won in Sclessin against Standard in the half-finals of the Belgium Cup. In fact they didn't deserve to win but they had (once again) much luck and now only 3 days after they have to make again a far trip to far Limburg.
Zulte-Waregem: Breleur is suspended, Leleu is doubtfull..
Sint-Truiden: Hayen is suspended. No long term injured players.
And once again I will go against Zulte-Waregem. Now, it's really enough for them. They have to play too much games now, and remember, half of the team are semi-professional players. They have to work in the day, and in the evening they train. Agains a far trip after Standard to Sint-Truiden, to a team that has to win, and who is able to do that, remember 3-0 against Anderlech. For my part, Sint-Truiden will win this one. Before the new year Sint-Truiden won in Zulte-Waregem with 1-5!!
26-03-2006 18:00 Moeskroen - Racing Genk
High-flying Moeskroen receaves Racing Genk who is really bad nowadays.
Why is Moeskroen good this days? Well, they won against Charleroi 0-1. Don't look at the result, moeskroen had much more chances, played much better and deserved much better. Charleroi had some chances, but Moeskroen played offensive a great game, pitty for them that they scored only once. It surprises me really as Moeskroen away is not a good team. Last away game in the competition was in Antwerpen against Germinal-Beerschot which was lost with 1-0. They conceeded a strange goal, pressed for the equaliser but hadn't luck that day.
What about Racing Genk? They lost in a top game against Standard 1-0. the result here says also nothing as Genk got only once chance in whole the game. Standard was much better, created much more chances and it should have been 3-0 at least. Genk's problem is that the coach Broos plays in a very defensive formation 4-5-1 with only one striker Peeters or Van Den Bergh and Engelaar behind them who is completetly out of form. The most players are too young to play in the first team. They don't have enough experience at this level. Very good for Genk is that offensive midfielder Daerden who was really important and who was injured for months. He will probably start on the bench.
Moeskroen: Grimaldi, Oussalah, Ermin Siljak, Olivier Besengez are the long term injury's, Tailson Ilson Dos Santos José, Benajiba, Skocibusic are also injured an doubtfull for the game..
Genk: Bolat and Soetaers are the long term injured players. Defour is suspended. Claessens (who didn't played since begin of the season due to an injury), Matoukou, Verdonck and Peeters are doubtfull
I give a slight advantage to Moeskroen as they are a good team at home, remember 6-0 against poor Cercle 2 weeks ago, Standard lost there. Moeskroen is good enough to beat this atm poor Genk. Genk has no playing style atm and when Daerden will be in topform we will see another Racing Genk. Moeskroen win is a value bet!
25-03-2006 20:00 Lierse - La Louviere
Ow, this match is fixed (joke..)! 2 team who got involved in the betting schandal plays against each other. Last years game between this 2 seems to be fixed. It ended in 7-0 for Lierse. Both teams are in relegation danger and it's a MUST win for both teams. La Louviere, a really poor team who got a draw 3 times in a row. Lierse, a poor team before the new year, but now they improves me.
Lierse, won last game in and against Zulte-Waregem. A really surprise for many fans, nobody expekted that. They played good organised, had 3 chances and scored a strange goal from. Zulte-Waregem tried to do something but were unlucky. 3 gold points for the visitors.
La Louviere played again 0-0 at home, this time against Roeselare. It was a boring game without chances. Roeselare keeper Sierens should have got a red card there, but it's la louviere midfielder who got a red card. I have only 2 things to say: Poor poor FANS, they don't deserve such team in the Jupiler League.
La Louviere: Brahami, Montoya and Rogerio doubfull. Blay is out. Stoikov is long term injured.
Bob Cousin is suspended
Lierse: Imschoot and Mrdja won't play. Andic will be probably suspended?
I will be on Lierse, they are simple much better than La Louviere, who will probably come to defend and wait for a counter-attack. They simply don't have a real striker, that's why they didn't score last game(s). Lierse will get a good support, I give them the advantage. Medium stake on Lierse.
26-03-2006 13:00 Club Brugge - Anderlecht
This is THE top game of the year. Every respectfull football fan should know this “classic game”. It's of course not Inter-Milan or Real-Barcelona but in Belgium it's the top game. The stadion is already from january sold-out. It the last chance for Club Brugge to keep their dream for championship. Anderlecht president said that if Anderlecht wins in Brugge, Brugge won't become champions for sure!
Brugge manager Marc Degryse said that Brugge still beleaves in the title..
Anderlecht trashed Beveren with 4-0. The man in form Frutos was the match winner, scored once, and got a penalty. It could been easy 10-0 especially in the second half. It was like a training for Anderlecht who wasted some real chances, played good organised.
Brugge got a dissapointing point away against Westerlo. They played very weak, without real chances. Maybe it was the merit of Westerlo defence, who played good organised football, maybe it were the Club Brugge strikers who didn't got balls from midfield.. After the match captain Verheyend said: “we don't deserve the championship title..”
Anderlecht still can't count on the long term injured Kompany and Juhasz and De Man are still out. Other players are health enough to play. Brugge long term injured are still Lange and Butina. Nobody else is injured, everybody is health! Nobody is suspended
Last years it was always nice games with many cards. Last years game ended in 2-2.
As said, for Brugge is it the last chance for the title. If Brugge wins, Anderlecht still will have an advantage of 1 point, but then Standard will take the advantage of it .
Anyway, Anderlecht didn't convinced me. They play good at home, but like all “top” teams this year, they are very weak away. In front of more than 27500 Brugge fans, Brugge will press till the end, they have a good team, and they are good at home. Also the fact that it's their last chance, give me a feeling that Brugge will win this one, 2-1 is a nice result, as I also
expekt many goals so OVER 2.5 is a very good bet!
Benelux football 24-26 March
.GIF "Thumb(1)")
.
I take it Periode 1, 2, 3, etc. down the left is the separate phases the league is divided into, right?
