Ghent Seems to Be Anderlecht’s Biggest Championship Challenge

Anderlecht is preparing to face one of its worst peeves in the championship. Sporting has not won at La Gantoise since December 22, 2016. The record over the last seven seasons is worrying: five defeats and six draws. It’s worse than at Club Brugge or Standard.

Competition: attend the Anderlecht – RWDM match on November 26

The Ghelamco Arena – we must now call it the KAA Gent Arena because the contract with Ghelamco has not yet been renewed – seemed to bring luck to Anderlecht. The first three confrontations in the new Buffalos enclosure – the stadium was inaugurated in July 2013 – ended in victories for Sporting.

Vanhaezebrouck does not want to give Coucke any favors and the relationship with Riemer is not going too well either.

But since the season of the last title – in 2016-2017 – Ghent soil has been cursed for Anderlecht. In the classic phase, Weiler won 2-3 (two goals from Teodorczyk, one from Chipciu), notably thanks to a red card after 37 minutes for Esiti. The 0-0 during this season’s playoffs was enough to clinch the title.

Anderlecht, with Kums as captain, lost their European ticket by losing in Ghent on May 19, 2019. ©BELGA

However, in the following years, the scenario was always the same. The matches were close but Anderlecht never won. The worst memory is the defeat (2-1) on the last day of the playoffs of the 2018-2019 season: for the first time in 56 years, Sporting did not qualify for the European Cup. That day, Vincent Kompany was announced as the great savior of the club.

In 11 trips, Anderlecht have only scored three goals, which amounts to 0.27 goals per game. Ghent’s record is hardly more impressive: 8 goals in 11 matches, or 0.72 goals per match. Ghent have never won by more than a goal. We saw a 0-0 four times, without adding the final of the Belgian Cup at the King Baudouin stadium, won after penalties by Ghent.

The main reason for this lack of spectacle? Despite Anderlecht’s decline in recent seasons, Hein Vanhaezebrouck has always considered the match against Anderlecht as one of the meetings of the year. No question, for him, of giving gifts to the club of Marc Coucke, the man who gave him his C4.

Vanhaezebrouck congratulates Orban, scorer of the only goal in last season’s match. ©VKA

Anderlecht kept a bitter taste from the last confrontation between the two teams (1-0, after a splendid goal from Gift Orban). After the match, Vanhaezbrouck and Riemer were not on the same page. The Anderlecht coach believed that Ghent had focused on the counter-attack, which did not please Hein. “We pressed high. If we want to call them counterattacks…” Riemer had left the press room without shaking his opponent’s hand. “A misunderstanding,” was the explanation afterwards. The players’ bus was waiting for him.

The people of Ghent travel 7 hours this Friday. But they got 14 out of 18 after European matches.

This season, Anderlecht has the luxury of being able to prepare for this match throughout the week, while Ghent played a Conference League match this Thursday evening in Iceland. The flight from Ostend to Keflavik Airport takes three hours. Vanhaezebrouck prefers to stay one night there and return Friday afternoon. Landing in Ostend is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Between leaving the hotel and returning to Ghent, the players will have traveled for seven hours.

But Ghent know how to manage their league matches in the wake of their European obligations. Vanhaezebrouck rotates his squad as much as possible and favors the Jupiler Pro League. The 14 out of 18 after the European matches is the best illustration of this.

2023-11-12 12:05:00
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