Fill in and score twice. Then we may mention the term supersub. It was Mario Gonzalez who gave OH Leuven the victory at a high pace after an intense match with two goals (3-2), and that while the Spaniard only came in after half an hour. The people of Leuven strengthen their fourth place with a 10 out of 12.
The start of the match was pretty poor with both teams trying to keep the door locked first and foremost. At the first serious chance, it was immediately price. Charleroi mounted a clever attack via Ilaimaharitra and Gholizadeh, who served Heymans. The two got quite a lot of space from the Leuven defense and Heymans thanked the 1-0 with the post.
Shortly after the opening goal, OH Leuven also had a chance. Nsingi, who was remarkably preferred over Gonzalez in the striker, decided against goalkeeper Koffi. Moments later, the quick equalizer followed. Malinov aimed a measured long ball at Maertens, who avoided a clumsy Koffi and made a cool 1-1. In the meantime, it had become a fun, fast-paced game at Den Dreef.
Around the half hour, the chances became a little scarcer again, until Mendyl was allowed to dock again for OHL. His shot from near the target had little direction and went wide. On the other side, Gholizadeh scored from outside the box, but he couldn’t get goalkeeper Cojocaru into trouble. Then it was immediately up to the home team, who again had a huge chance to take the lead, but Nsingi hit the bar.
Even after the break there was a lot of pace in the game, but in the last phase things often ran rough. Both defenses were good and the last pass was not always what it should be. And so after fifteen minutes we still hadn’t scored a single chance. You could feel that OHL was the closest to scoring, and that eventually came thanks to a gold substitution. Holzhauser shot a free kick to the Gonzalez, who made it 2-1 in one go. Both were on the field for just 30 seconds.
Real striker
Charleroi tried to react, but it was difficult to get past the excellently organized people from Leuven. The visitors rarely, if ever, came into the box and then tried it with usually harmless long shots. Fifteen minutes before the end, however, after a VAR intervention, the ball hit the spot when Mendyl knocked down Heymans. Ilaimaharitra chased the 2-2 into the goal from eleven meters high. Immediately afterwards, Koffi had to make a good save on the other side to keep Holzhauser from a new Leuven lead.
OHL was not satisfied with a point and went looking for a third goal. And it came. After a well-played attack, Ouedraogo was able to serve Gonzalez in the sixteen. The Spaniard managed to put the winning goal past Koffi in a controlled manner and like a real striker – again a combination of two substitutes.
OHL 3-2 Charleroi
Goals: 13′ Heymans (Gholizadeh) 0-1, 22′ Maertens (Malinov) 1-1, 62′ Gonzalez (Holzhauser) 2-1, 76′ Ilaimaharitra (penalty kick), 86′ Gonzalez (Ouedraogo) 3-2
OHL: Cojocaru, Patris, Pletinckx, Ricca, Tamari (90′ Dom), Malinov, De Norre, Mendyl (74′ Ouedraogo), Maertens, Thorsteinsson (61′ Holzhauser), Nsingi (61′ Gonzalez)
Charleroi: Koffi, Bager, Andreou, Bessile, Nkuba (87′ Hosseinzadeh), Zorgane, Ilaimaharitra, Tchatchoua, Heymans, Mbenza (74′ Benbouali), Gholizadeh (74′ Descotte).
Yellow cards: 17′ Andreou, 57′ Ilaimaharitra, 61′ Nkuba, 75′ Mendyl, 88′ Bager, 90′ Holzhauser
Referee: Bram Van Driessche
