Well I did plan to write a post on Saturday or Sunday. After Genk did win on Standard for the first time in 11 years and before the away game of Club Brugge at Antwerp. The title which I had in my mind was: Has it become a 2 horse race!

The idea behing this was simple. I did expect that Brugge would take the 3 points away at Antwerp. This would have resulted in Brugge chasing Genk by 4 points and Antwerp already 10 points behind.

But the Antwerp vs Club Brugge game did end up in a scoreless draw. It appears that Club Brugge was withheld a clear penalty in the first 3 minutes of the game. But I didn't see the images, so I can't make a statement about that!

Ranking

The table doesn't tell everything. It shows that Genk has a 6 points lead but in fact those are really 5. If Genk and Club Brugge do end up with the same amount of points, Club Brugge will be crowned the Champions. This because Genk got 0.5 point extra after halving the points.

But loosing only 1 game, which was undeserved, in the the first 5 games is a real morale booster for the youngstes of Genk. The coach Clement has played some different tactics depending on the opponent. And this really did pay off! What is also important is that Genk won it's 3 home games! This is really needed to lift the trophy!

Brugge on the other side hasn't won their last 2 games, which of course could decrease the morale!

What the ranking also doesn't tell is that Standard will get 3 points extra. Making it a close battle between Standard and Antwerp for the third place. This third place represents an European Ticket, while the fourth one probably will have to play a final against the winner of the Play Off 2.

At the bottem the season is more or less over for Anderlecht. The sacking of the second coach this year, didn't had the result the board expected. Gent probably will start to focus on the Cup final of the 1st of May. If they do win this, the will have no motivation left the play the reamining PO 1 games.

Next weekend Antwerp will face Standard at home. Which could ne decisive for the third place. Genk will have the difficult trip toward Gent, who are probably more thinking about the cup final than to focus on this game. No player does want to miss the cup final, so the won't go the extra mile.
Club Brugge will end the round with a home game against enemy Anderlecht!

After the next round everything can be different again. This is what makes this kind of Play Off so interesting.

Cheers,
Peter