The die is cast ! A year after going down, the Old Club is already finding its way back to the elite and we can’t say it’s been stolen. The Liégeois dominated the first round and finished by far with the best attack in D1. It was in front of a full Rocourt stadium that the sons of Tchantchès ensured their rise, at the end of a real thriller. Whatever the score of 5-1 suggests (it’s still 4-1 on the federation’s app: would the referees have lost track of the match?), it was a very competitive play-off . About ten minutes from the end, the two teams were also perfectly tied: 2-1 for Mechelen in the first leg, 2-1 for the Old Club in the return with goals from Tommy Keenan on pc and Pierre De Moor for the Liégeois, and the weekly pc of Manu Mondo for the Malinois. About ten minutes from the end, then, when the local goalkeeper Florent Martin had just pulled off a very difficult save, the Sang et Marines went on the counterattack and Pierre De Moor scored his second goal of the afternoon. This generated an unbalanced end to the match because Mechelen then brought out his goalkeeper… which had no other effect than to provoke two new goals from Liège, by Gauthier Marchandisse and Aymeric Maréchal (5-1). The party could begin and for this kind of thing, we can trust the people of Liège!
At the same time, it was also a party at Merlo where, unsurprisingly, Uccle emerged as in the first leg in front of Namur deprived of Viktor Pokorny and Geronimo Clement. The Blackbirds were not long in taking the lead through Simon Houbart on pc rebound before doubling the gap through Mathieu Latte in the quarter hour. Namur did not abdicate and after a few missed chances came back to 2-1 on stroke by Tomas Dieudonné. The Ucclois put the cover back after the restart, Thibault Cornillie scoring his first goal of the season before Mallory Magnant made the addition. Leading 8-3 on aggregate over the two legs, the Ucclois from the lower part of town had only to wait for the final whistle, which was not reached without Namur closing the gap again, by Loïc Daussogne (4-2) with the collaboration of the local goalkeeper.
The Amicale is maintained, the Shade descends
The hen for the maintenance delivered its first official results. As expected, the Amicale (which only needed one more point) escapes and the Umbridge, which no longer had its fate in hand, descends. This did not prevent the three meetings from being hotly contested, like almost every week.
The Langeveld had the privilege of officially descending the Ombrage, after a very long stay in D1 (apart from a short stay in D2 between 2012 and 2014). In urgent need of points, the Ucclois opened the scoring through Thibault Cooremans on pc (it had been a long time!) and led 0-1 at rest. In the second period, they doubled the gap through Nicolas Henet with a backhand before Umbridge picked up the score on pc through Leo De Ranter. Meanwhile, Boris Hazaer had stopped a stroke shot by Florian Lalande, following another pc. There were ten minutes left when Thibault Cooremans this time put the Langeveld permanently in the shelter, on a pass from Simon Bourel. A last pc allowed the Woluweens to come back to 2-3, still by De Ranter, but the three points remained in Uccle.
Small cause, big effects: the Lang overtakes the Lara, author of a … seventh draw in eight matches. A draw on the Amicale field, it cannot be refused for the moment, but the Wavriens, however deprived of five players, were very close to winning three, their last pc three minutes from the end, scored by Victor Leduc, being canceled by the refereeing body… wrongly according to the Amicalistes themselves in the third half! Before that, the Amicale had twice taken the lead on pc (by Pangrazio with the complicity of a defender on the line, then by Martin Michiels) and the Macas had come back to 1-1 by Gilles Strypstein before half- time, and by Gilles Aurel Germain on stroke. Here is Lara the barrage, but still with his fate in hand: next week he will play against Umbridge before the “grand final” against Langeveld on May 1.
Finally, Wellington came closer to maintaining by sharing the stake with Indiana. The Ghents led twice in the first half, by Lukas Verhulst then Mattia Melato on pc, but twice the Yellow and Gray were saved by their pc shooter, Elliot Gillardin. Unless Indiana wins its last two matches and they themselves finish with a 0/6, the Ucclois will stay one more year in D1.