For this game, Steven Defour lined up a strong defensive eleven.
At the Buffalos, Tarik Tissoudali, holder for the first time since July 30, relegated Gift Orban to the bench and Nurio Fortuna replaced Jordan Torunarigha in defense. The Buffalos tried to take control of the match, but they waited before creating the first dangerous situation on a combination between Hyun-seok Hong and Hugo Cuypers (19th).
For a long time, the 11,877 spectators in the packed AFAS Stadion believed that this lackluster first half would end in a goalless draw. Suddenly, on a loss of ball from Birger Verstraete, Samoise slipped into the Mechelen defense before beating Gaëtan Coucke, in two stages (42nd, 0-1).
The Buffalos did not have time to savor that Wouters equalized with a nice strike in the top corner (45th, 1-1). Back from the locker room, the Gantois appeared more motivated with the rise of Orban for Tissoudali.
But they still had to wait to see Cuypers miss his recovery on a shot from Hong badly repelled by Coucke (56th). The Malinois goalkeeper had another narrow escape when he returned a header from Alessio Castro Montes at the feet of Orban, who missed (62nd). Subsequently, Mechelen managed to put his opponent to sleep and the Ghent danger frayed.
