Leuven and Kortrijk drew 1-1. Everything was decided in the space of five minutes in the second half.
This eighth day of the Pro League ended with a duel that did not look like the sexiest on paper between Louvain and Kortrijk but which was worth its weight in gold at the bottom of the table. Both teams were involved in the fight for survival until the end and are still looking to give themselves some breathing space.
Deprived of William Balikwisha (not fit enough, on the bench), Louvain approached this match with three points more than its opponent, who saw the encounter as an opportunity to leave the red zone.
A committed match
A fairly balanced duel between two teams pressing high, without exposing themselves too much at the back. The two best chances of the first half fell a minute apart: in the wake of Gilles Dewaele’s shot stopped by Tobe Leysen, Youssef Maziz sent a tight cross to Ezechiel Banzuzi who fired it against the post (19th).
The pace then dropped, with fouls outnumbering clear-cut chances. Just as the second half seemed to be heading in the same direction, a deflected shot from Dion De Neve caught Tobe Leysen off guard, allowing Kortrijk to open the scoring and the match to emerge from its lethargy (58th).
The match was underway: five minutes later, Leuven caught up thanks to a great breakthrough by Birger Verstraete on the left, which was calmly finished by N’dri at the edge of the large rectangle (1-1). While the match seemed to have finally started, the two goals turned out to be a flash in the pan, with the end of the match hardly offering the two goalkeepers the opportunity to shine.
Status quo at the bottom of the table: Leuven is one of the four teams with 11 points, keeping a three-point lead over its opponent this evening who remains in the red zone. OHL has a fourth game in a row without a home defeat (after notably beating Genk and Standard), thus signing the best start to the season in its history at Den Dreef.
