Relaunched thanks to its victory against Cercle de Bruges, Standard hopes to continue and finally score big points on the road. At Mambourg, Ivan Leko will once again be deprived of a large part of his defensive sector, but the Croatian coach has “confidence in his players.”
Undefeated at Mambourg since March 2020, Standard will travel to Charleroi with the possibility of provisionally entering the top 6 in the event of a victory this Saturday evening. A meeting for which Ivan Leko is still deprived of Laurent Henkinet, David Bates, Souleyman Doumbia and Nathan Ngoy. “Boli Bolingoli and Alexandro Calut are training a little more. Maybe we can put them in the selection, we will make a decision after the last training.”
“Yes, it's starting to take a long time for David Bates. It all started with a blow received in training. He's an important player for us, our defense is not the same with or without him. We recovered a certain defensive intensity against Cercle, but our defense is not the same without Doumbia, Ngoy and Bates” conceded the Croatian T1.
Despite last week's clean sheet against Cercle, the first since the match against Union, Standard's defense is still very fragile. In addition to absences, Ibe Hautekiet and Bosko Sutalo are under threat of suspension. “They play every match, the last ones with four yellow cards. It's not easy, but they are intelligent players.”
Finally winning on the road, the big challenge of the second half of the Standard season
Relaunched after its sinking at La Gantoise, Standard hopes to achieve a… second success away from home, after that won at Dender. “I have confidence in my players, we want to do much better than in the last three away games. We know that it is a very important match, in which there will be a lot of intensity. Against a team that likes the ball, have players who come in attack,..”
“In our last three trips, we played way too much. We had possession at Antwerp, in Ghent, but we conceded three goals, five goals. If we had played more defensively, the results might have been “It's this base that we want to turn to and so, yes, these are two different teams who will face each other. Two teams who do not score easily, the first goal will therefore be crucial” concluded Ivan. Leko.
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