KV Mechelen and Standard forget to jump to the top 6 in a goalless draw

Jupiler Pro League – matchday 20 – 26/12/24 – 6:31 PM

No goals and therefore no jump to top 6 for KV Mechelen or Standard. Both teams could not find their way to goal in a poor match. The visitors in particular had little claim to victory.

KV Mechelen – Standard in a nutshell:

1. Key moment

   KV Mechelen also piles up the misses in the first half with the opportunities. Just after the hour it goes wrong twice in the same phase. Raman first aims a big chance at Epolo and in the restart Dahl is also unable to finish from close range.

2. Man of the match

   Matthieu Epolo has already had a season with ups and downs, but today he proved himself to be a reliable final player again at Standard. In the first half he defused three chances for Raman and in the second half he helped Standard hold on to the point with all possible forms of time-consuming. The counter stands at 8 clean sheets, only Coosemans and Moris are doing better.

3. Remarkable

   KV Mechelen not scoring is a rare fact this season. Only when they visited Standard and KAA Gent, the people of Mechelen could not find their way to goal. For Standard, a match without at least one goal is no exception. The Liège team was unable to score in more than half of its league matches.

2 out of 12 for KV Mechelen, 3 out of 12 for Standard. After lean weeks, both teams were desperate for a win to close out 2024. However, this only led to an urge to act at KV Mechelen, Standard gradually seemed to be mainly happy with a point.

At KV Mechelen, the Christmas meal was clearly well digested, because the home team immediately got into the swing of things. The fact that KV Mechelen did not take the lead at half time was mainly their own fault.

Raman was able to fire on Epolo three times, but the Standard goalkeeper emerged victorious each time. Twice such a save led to a promising recovery, but Pflücke and Dahl failed.

Standard was hardly dangerous in the first half. When a threat did arise and Eckert Ayensa was able to make the decision after a blocked header from close range, his own teammate Zeqiri got in the way.

The home team could kick themselves for the missed opportunities, because KV Mechelen didn’t make much of it in the second half. Standard lived up to its strong defensive reputation and the despondency gradually increased among the Besnik Hasi team.

It was even Standard that provided the rare danger in a lackluster second half. Zeqiri was allowed to try twice, but was unable to get past De Wolf at first and was unable to frame his attempt with a header chance.

KV Mechelen had to hope for a Christmas miracle, but when the opportunity presented itself, Lauberbach threw his good preparatory work in the trash with a dramatic final pass.

In the final phase, Standard almost took the three points when Price launched Camara, but Boufal was able to block the shot with a clever tackle. Both teams missed out on winning for the fifth match in a row and thus slipped further away from the top six.

• Besnik Hasi (KV Mechelen coach): “We mainly let it go in the first half. We started off scorching with a series of chances, some of which were unmissable. It’s a shame that we couldn’t score there. Gradually, Standard was able to get into its game better, defensively, with a strong organization and a lot of work. In the second half there were fewer chances. We were in control all the time, Standard only lurked on the counter and were perhaps dangerous twice a missed opportunity. It went more smoothly two months ago, but now it is less so. I cannot blame my players, they are giving 100 percent. It now remains to be seen which new players will join me, because 5 to 6 key players are out for a long time “Without them it is difficult to bring the football of two months ago.”
• Ivan Leko (trainer Standard): “We wanted to do absolutely everything we could to win, but we knew in advance that it is difficult for all teams here. KV Mechelen was better in the first half, when they probably should have led 1-0 or 2-0. But we were better in the second half. We played smarter and had three counters that could have given us something more. When you see how many young players we had to play with today and without our captain, I am very satisfied a very important and based also deserved point in the second half. What the plan is for 2025? We need new players and more competition. Three to four players have to leave and be replaced We succeeded last summer and I am confident that it will succeed again.”