October 16, 2022
Today’s Sunday lunchtime kick-off in the Belgian First Division A was the visit of Royal Antwerp, the league leaders going into weekend, to 7th placed Standard Liege.
These diaries have previously featured Antwerp, when they visited KV Mechelen for the opening fixture of the 2021/22 season, which they lost 2-4. Antwerp went on to finish 4th, whereas Standard ended up in a disappointing 14th place.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/07/kv-mechelen-vs-royal-antwerp-att-4800.html
Antwerp started this season with 9 consecutive victories, before a 1-2 loss at lowly Kortrijk ended their 100 percent record. They bounced back from that set-back to beat St Truiden 2-0 at home to maintain their 2 point lead over Genk. They have been miserly at the back, with their defence being breached just 8 times. This though would be their first meeting with one of the so-called “big clubs” ie Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Genk being the others.
Heading the table is a far cry from the days in the late 2000’s when I watched Antwerp twice play at Tienen in the second division of Belgian football. Indeed, Antwerp played 13 seasons in the second level before promotion in 2017, accustomed to playing the likes of Deinze, Virton, Ronse, Tubize and Hamme. However, progress isn’t always good, and many Antwerp fans bemoan the closure of the historic Tribune Twee stand in the Bosuilstadion to meet safety standards of the top league and European football. It has remained empty for the past two seasons, reducing the capacity of their stadium to around 15,000.
Antwerp have qualified for European football for each of the past 4 years. This season they played in the Europa Conference League, eliminating Kosovan side FC Drita, and Lillestrom from Norway, before being knocked out by Turkish side Basasekhir after a 1-3 home defeat, following a 1-1 draw in Istanbul.
Antwerp’s head coach is former ex-PSV, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Milan Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel ( 79 caps ), who has previously coached PSV and WFL Wolfsburg. Notable signings since the start of last season include ex-Spurs and Ajax defender Toby Alderweireld ( 123 caps ), ex-Roma, Inter and Cagliari midfielder Radja Nainggolan ( 30 caps ), ex-AZ Dutch striker Calvin Stengs ( 7 caps ) on loan from Nice, USA defender Sam Vines ( 9 caps ), ex-Ajax and Hertha Berlin Dutch midfielder Jurgen Ekkelenkamp, ex Bayern Munich midfielder Christopher Scott and two Ecuadorians, midfielder Anthony Valencia and defender William Pacho.
Remaining from the squad that featured in last season’s match against Mechelen are Swiss striker Michael Frey, ex-Manchester United and Stoke full-back Richie de Laet ( 2 caps ), French keeper Jean Butez, midfielder Pieter Gerkens and defender Jelle Bataille.
Ex-Tottenham and AZ Alkmaar Dutch striker Vincent Janssen ( 20 caps ), who was derided during his time at Spurs for his inability to find the net, was the top scorer so far with 7 goals, whilst Frey was next on 4.
Royal Standard de Liege have been continuously playing in the top flight in Belgium since 1921, and have won the title 10 times, the last of which was in 2008/09. They have a decent history in European club competition, reaching the final of the 1981/82 Cup Winners Cup where they lost 1-2 to Barcelona, and were semi-finalists in the 1961/62 European Cup.
They have long since been the standard bearer of football in the French speaking part of the country and this season there are only two other clubs from Wallonia ( Sporting Charleroi and Seraing ), two from bi-lingual Brussels ( Anderlecht and Union St Gilloise ), with the other 13 teams located in the Dutch speaking part of the country.
Home is the Stade de Sclessin, named after the district of Liege it is located in, although it’s more formal name is Stade Maurice Dufrasne, who was an early chairman of the club. I have witnessed two matches at Sclessin. In June 1993 I attended a Belgian Cup Semi-Final tie where Standard beat KSV Waregem 2-1 in front of a crowd of 18,000, thanks to a winner from Henk Vos, and they went on to win the final.
In February 1995 I was amongst 5,000 spectators who saw FC Liege lose 0-4 to Anderlecht. FC Liege were playing at Sclessin as they were prevented from playing at their own ground due to financial problems, and they merged with Seraing after being relegated at the end of the season.
Standard are coached by Norwegian Ronny Delia, who has previously been in charge at Celtic. Their squad includes Colombian midfielder Steven Alzate ( 7 caps ) who is on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion after returning from a long injury, and Croatian striker Stipe Perica, who has played for Watford, Udinese and NAC Breda.
Bosnian midfielder Gojko Cimirot has played 39 times for his country, Congolese defender Merveille Bokadi has 26 caps for DR Congo, Norwegian midfielder Aron Donnum has 2 caps and Danish winger Philip Zinckernagel is on loan from Olympiakos and has Watford and Nottingham Forest on his CV. American right-back Marlon Fossey should be familiar to supporters of Fulham, Bolton and Shrewsbury and Moroccan midfielder Selim Amallah has 20 caps
Standard had a 6-1-4 record so far this season. They started with 3 losses in their opening 5 matches before going on a run of 5 wins out of 6, with only a disappointing 0-2 home loss in the derby with Seraing spoiling the record. Their most notable result to-date is a 3-0 home win over Club Brugge in which Zinckernagel scored twice. Amallah is their top scorer with 4 goals but both were missing today. Zickernagel was suspended and Amallah was injured.
Standard are the second best supported time in the league at the moment, with an average home crowd of 20,212, behind Club Brugge who average 22,545. Because of the reduce capacity at their ground, Antwerp’s average is only 12,879, the 5th best in the league, behind Anderlecht and Genk.
Ticket for the game ranged between €19 to €35, with the weather at the 13.30 local kick-off cloudy and around 16 degrees.
Bet365, who live streamed the match, made Antwerp 5/4 favourites, with Standard at 2/1 and the draw 5/2. The match was also streamed on Eleven Sports for a fee of €3.49.
Standard were in their traditional all red strip whilst Antwerp were playing in a change kit of all black with red trimmings.
The game got off to a dramatic start. A long crossfield ball from the right-back area was headed on by Alzate to put Donnum in space on the left. The winger got to the by-line, easily beat Bataille, the covering defender, to put the ball on a plate for William Balikwisha to tap home from 4 yards to give Standard the lead with less than 2 minutes on the clock.
It got even better for the home side two minutes later as Raskin played an incisive ball through the square Antwerp back line to put Romanian striker Denis Dragus free. The ex-Viitorul Constanza man cut back inside Pacho, and with Alderweireld slow to cover, Dragus was able to take an extra touch before sending his shot into the top corner to give keeper Butez no chance.
With the visitors still in a state of shock, they fell even further behind in the 9th minute. 17 year old Cihan Canak started the move and Alzate’s smart pass on the edge of the area was dummied by Dragus. With Alderweireld buying the dummy, Canak was able to run onto the ball to calmly finish left footed past Butez for a wonderful goal to make it 3-0. So much for Antwerp’s miserly defence………….
Antwerp responded to their dreadful start but Gerkens’s snap-shot from just outside the area was pushed away by the diving Bodart, and Vines’ free-kick to the near post was met by Alderweireld with a back-flicked header, but Bodart made a good reaction save.
Antwerp coach van Bommel had seen enough though and made a tactical substitution after 17 minutes, bringing on the experienced De Laet. Vines was the unfortunate player to be hooked, but quite frankly, any one of the back four could have been taken off. Antwerp switched to a back three, with De Laet on the right, Alderweireld in the middle and Pacho on the left. Bataille moved to wide on the right, but then he hadn’t been doing any defending anyway.
Antwerp were at last getting their feet into the game, and a dangerous looking free-kick from Yusuf need a smart header from Fossey to prevent any attacker getting on the end of it. However, Standard were still looking the more dangerous side, and their swift one touch passing football threatened to cut apart the Antwerp defence every time.
Huge holes were still appearing where an Antwerp right-back should have been, and Cimirot got into a good position on the left but his low cross was cleared. Antwerp’s reply was a long-throw flicked on by Frey, but Janssen headed weakly at the keeper from 10 yards.
The TV cameras repeatedly focused a worried looking van Bommel, and he had plenty to be worried about.
In the 34th minute Antwerp appealed for a penalty when Muja’s cross appeared to hit Fossey on the arm, but the referee waved play on, and soon Standard centre-back Dussenne was charging unchallenged from the half-way line to the Antwerp area but Dragus was crowded out when attempting to shoot.
Antwerp’s half was summed up 5 minutes before the interval when Muja’s attempted free-kick towards a crowd of attacking team-mates sailed harmlessly over them and wide for a goal-kick. Play was held up on the stroke of half-time with a flare thrown onto the pitch from the Antwerp end, and it was arguably the most dangerous thing to have come from Antwerp in the first 45 minutes.
Proving that statistics can be mis-leading, Antwerp had 54% of the first half possession but had been totally outplayed and 0-3 slightly flattered them. The odds on an Antwerp victory were now 40/1.
Van Bommel continued to make changes to his line-up, with Nainggolan and Stengs coming on at the start of the second half but it had little impact. Alderweireld gave away possession with a sloppy pass out from the back but after moving menacingly towards the Antwerp area, Balikwisha saw his cross intercepted. A minute later the same player blazed over the bar after being played in by Raskin.
The impressive Canak skillfully turned to beat Yusuf near the half-way line but his run was ended by a scything foul from De Laet, who saw yellow for his efforts. A flowing Standard move on the hour mark involving Dragus, Raskin and Canak required an alert interception from Pacho.
With the game entering the final third, Antwerp finally started applying some pressure on the Standard defence. Nainggolan’s free-kick was glanced on by Frey, but Raskin was the quickest to react and was able to clear at the expense of a corner. Nainggolan then sent a long range shot a few feet wide, and then De Laet delivered an inviting cross that was just beyond Nainggolan at the far post. Michel-Ange Balikwisha appeared from the substitute’s bench to join his brother on the pitch, albeit on different sides !
However, Standard were still capable of some sparkling football, a move of at least 10 first time passes reached Laursen, whose pass across the face of the game just evaded Davida as he slid into the 6 yard area.
With the destination of the points already determined, the final 10 minutes petered out. Stengs shot harmlessly wide, and Pacho headed wide from 12 yards out but Antwerp never seriously looked like claiming a consolation goal.
With this convincing victory, Standard improved their recent run to 6 wins out of 7 and moved up to 4th in the table/ On this display they look potential candidates for a title challenge, having now recorded 3-0 wins over both Antwerp and Club Brugge. Antwerp fell to second in table, one point behind Genk, who are 9 points ahead of Standard. Next week-end Antwerp host Genk, and will need a much better display with this to get their title bid back on track.
Standard Liege : Bodart – Dussenne, Bokadi, Cimirot – Fossey ( Dewaele ), W.Balikwisha, Raskin, Alzate ( Melegoni ), Donnum ( Laursen ) – Canak ( Davida ), Dragus ( Perica )
Royal Antwerp : Butez – Bataille ( Stengs ), Alderweireld, Pacho, Vines ( De Laet ) – Muja ( Scott ), Gerkens, Ekkelenkamp ( Nainggolan ), Yusuf – Frey ( M.Balikwisha ), Janssen
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5TXa3ctSvg
No comments:
Post a Comment