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OH Leuven
OHL
OHL –
2
end
1
ZWA –
ZWA
Zulte Waregem
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Jupiler Pro League OH Leuven beat Zulte-Waregem 2-1 after an exciting match and is settling even more firmly in the left column. The West Flemish, who after a 2-0 deficit, turned out with a strong final offensive and still came close to the equalizer, slide away towards the relegation zone. The people from Leuven drove for one hour on the quality of Mercier in particular – already eight assists this season, in the second half they held on to character.
At OHL, Duplus (for the passed Bese) and Tshimanga (for the injured Ouedraogo) celebrated their re-appearance after a month and a half injuries. Francky Dury retained confidence in the team that scored a point at Standard last week. Yet one change: Humprheys at the center of the defense for the injured Pletinckx.
Beforehand, there were fears for a closed game between two teams that initially have an eye for a good defensive organization and that are lurking for the counter. But the three thousand spectators in the stands got a spectacle. Halfway through the first half, both teams had each already played four good chances together, goalkeepers Romo and Bostyn each had to make two strong saves and had scored OHL, a beauty from Henry – who had missed a dot of an opportunity just before. – at the request of – again –Mercier. The seventh assist of the Frenchman this season.
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After that goal, OHL explicitly left the ball to Zulte-Waregem, which had 65% possession at half time, but did too little with it. Marcq aimed a good chance, Bruno headed in the side net. Then the sharply countering home team was more dangerous: Maertens left two good opportunities unused, also because Bostyn was keeping a strong goal.
Early in the second half, a header goal by Seck was rightly disallowed for offside. The visitors were explicitly looking for a goal against, but just after the hour ran into a new sharp OHL counter. Mercier – who else? – sent Sowah deep, the Ghanaian kept calm and placed the ball out of reach of Bostyn in the far corner. The fourth hit already by the Leicester mercenary this season.
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With Kainourgios and Berahino as fresh forces, Zulte-Waregem fought back after all. On a pass from Opare, Berahino made it 2-1 twenty minutes before the end. Immediately the signal for a major final offensive by the visitors. OHL, which had already given a lot, got it more and more difficult. Kainourgios dropped a beckoning equalizer twice and Bruno went half a meter wide. The ones in Leuven folded, but did not creak.
DOELPUNTEN: 20 ‘Henry (1-0), 63’ Sowah (2-0), 70 ‘Berahino (2-1).
Brys and Dury united after OHL – Zulte Waregem: “We lacked efficiency”
OH Leuven and Zulte Waregem turned it into a particularly attractive game of football in the King Power Stadium @ Den Dreef. The fact that OHL eventually took over had everything to do with the fantastic performance of Xavier Mercier again. The French playmaker of the Leuven team underlined his blood form with two more decisive passes in both goals of his team, which now brings him to 8 assists in as many games.
“I cannot deny that I have never been able to be so decisive for a team before,” said the 31-year-old Frenchman with satisfaction. “But the guys I send on their way to goal still have to finish the chances, otherwise there will be no assists for me, hey. Football is and remains a team sport. And I am fortunate to have met guys like Thomas Henry, Kamal Sowah, but certainly also Mathieu Maertens, who blindly find me and each other in the combinations. ”
Incidentally, OHL coach Marc Brys placed a justified comment on all the praise that his team garnered.
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“With 33 percent possession today, I cannot be completely satisfied”, the Antwerp resident was very critical. “And certainly not with only two goals from fourteen open chances. We were very dangerous, but in no way efficient. This match should have been killed quickly, now we ran into problems at the end. ”
The losing coach, Francky Dury, sees his team sink into the ranking, but also left Den Dreef with a bit of hope.
“In terms of mentality, this game was possibly even better than the previous one at Standard, and in terms of quality of our game we have certainly taken another step forward,” said Dury. “We just allowed ourselves to be caught by the danger we had foreseen in advance, namely the deadly conversion of Leuven. And we may not have hit on high odds, but with a little more efficiency we could have grabbed a point here. Whether that would have been deserved, I will leave open. We may have only reached 1 in 6 since that punishment by Club Brugge, but that was a huge mess. And I think we have recovered well from that. ”
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