KV Mechelen beats ten-man OH Leuven forfeit score in Dijlederby and moves into the top 6

Jupiler Pro League – matchday 10 – 05/10/24 – 4:00 PM

time	icon	player	homeTime	homeIcon	homePlayer	score	awayPlayer	awayIcon	awayTime
14′		Chukwuvuikem Ikwuemesi	14′		Chukwuvuikem Ikwuemesi	1 – 0
18′		Rob Schoofs	18′		Rob Schoofs	2 – 0
58′		Lion Lauberbach	58′		Lion Lauberbach	3 – 0
77′		Petter Dahl	77′		Petter Dahl	4 – 0
90+3′		Bilal Bafdili	90+3′		Bilal Bafdili	5 – 0

In the Dijlederby, KV Mechelen showed off with a demonstration against OH Leuven. After less than twenty minutes, the home team was already 2-0 up against one man less, after an early red for Ricca. Lauberbach, Dahl and Bafdili increased to the forfeit score in the second half. KVM jumps into the top 6, OHL remains stuck in the belly of the rankings.

KV Mechelen – OH Leuven in a nutshell:

1. Key moment

   The match is barely 12 minutes into the match when Ricca is excluded for a pulling error on the broken through Hairemans. Immediately afterwards Ikwuemesi scores an own goal. It is a double blow that OH Leuven will no longer be able to overcome.
2. Man of the match

   Nikola Storm was the pacesetter at KV Mechelen with two assists. With a clever strike in one go he led to Schoofs’ 2-0 and Lauberbach’s 3-0 also came after his preparatory work.

3. Remarkable

   KV Mechelen started the competition with 2 out of 12, but now has four wins in the last six games. At OH Leuven the trend is just the opposite. After six games without a defeat, the Leuven team now has three defeats in the last four games.

Dramatic start to the match for OH Leuven in Mechelen. After just 18 minutes, the Leuven team had already been reduced to ten and they were two goals behind against KV Mechelen.

The Leuven misery started when Ricca misjudged a long kick from De Wolf and hung on to Hairemans who had broken through. Referee De Cremer was unrelenting: OHL was left with one man less after barely 12 minutes.

On the free kick after the red card, things got even worse for the visitors. Hairemans swung the ball into the sixteen and Ikwuemesi scored a painful own goal.

OH Leuven had barely recovered from that double blow when they already conceded a second goal. Mrabti immediately took advantage of the extra space with an excellent pass and, on a pass from Storm, captain Schoofs increased the Mechelen lead.

Nevertheless, the visitors were still able to make a fist. Maertens came close to the tying goal twice: first he collided with a great save from De Wolf, then he forgot to take advantage of defensive fumbling by the home team.

On the other side, Storm almost provided a second assist, but Lauberbach’s header hit the post.

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OH Leuven needed a miracle in the second half to turn the tide, but that didn’t happen. KV Mechelen held the reins and removed the last doubts on the hour mark. Storm again took on the role of announcer and Lauberbach made it 3-0 at the first post.

It made the second half completely unnecessary, but KV Mechelen still continued to look for a fourth goal. The home team also found it in the final phase. Substitute Dahl took a good shot to the short corner in the box and scored his first for KV Mechelen.

Maertens came close to the Leuven honor savior in the final phase, but De Wolf put a stop to that. Just before the final whistle, however, it became a forfeit score for OHL when Bafdili also scored his goal. OHL is left with a painful 1 out of 12, KV Mechelen takes its third home win in a row.

• Birger Verstraete (OH Leuven): “Everything was there to make it a horror afternoon. An early red card and quickly 1-0 behind. A few minutes later it was already 2-0. We showed ourselves resilient after that and even created a few chances, but De Wolf It was a good thing. But at this level you pay the cash if you get a red card so early in the match. You can’t cover that up for an entire match. I’m proud of the players, they didn’t let their heads down keep fighting. It hurts now, but I am convinced that we will come out of this stronger. We are currently on the ropes, but we have two weeks to get back on our feet.”
• Nikola Storm (KV Mechelen): “Two assists, that’s good. A third could have been added if Lauberbach didn’t head onto the post. The match obviously started very well for us with that red card and that own goal. After the 2-0 we were something too sloppy. They then had a few chances and that shouldn’t be allowed. You have to play dominantly against ten men and immediately try to score that third. We made some adjustments at half time and we started playing in a four-man defense We played it out well and in the end it became a beautiful afternoon with a 5-0 score.”