OH Leuven is obliged to collect points in the last three matches against teams from the left column: “It will be a fight until the end”

Football Jupiler Pro League: OH Leuven

Ewoud Pletinckx. “I think the big teams suit us better. Then we get a little more space.” — © Isosport

It didn’t work against the little ones. And so OH Leuven will have to secure retention against the three teams from the left column that now follow: Union, Club and KV Mechelen. “Somehow we had hoped to be safe earlier, but that won’t be possible.”

© Isosport

The first leg between Union and OHL, on August 12 last year, was a turning point in the Leuven season. The people of Brussels then scored 5-1 and after the match a protest broke out in the OHL section. Both CEO Peter Willems and coach Marc Brys suffered. Exactly two months later, neither of the top figures was still working for OHL. Saturday could be another decisive match. With a Leuven stunt victory it will be a turning point in a positive sense, but the opposite is also possible. Imagine that Charleroi wins at Westerlo, RWDM does the same at Kortrijk and OHL itself is defeated, then the crisis is complete. They’re just scenarios, of course. It hasn’t gotten that far yet.

© Isosport

The people of Leuven have themselves to blame for the fact that OHL still needs points. They took just two out of nine from the Standard-Charleroi-RWDM triptych. “It’s sour. We missed another opportunity to open a gap,” said Ewoud Pletinckx after last Saturday’s match in Molenbeek, in which he scored himself. “The first twenty minutes were really not good, but fortunately we got into the game better after that. We had a few chances in the second half, but it was not enough. Scoring remains difficult. We don’t create enough clear-cut chances and that has been a problem before. That makes it difficult to win matches.”

More space

And so OHL is still twelfth, barely one point above the relegation zone. “We won’t make much progress with these equal games,” Pletinckx realizes. “It’s a pity that we were not able to score more points against our direct competitors. On the other hand, I think the big teams suit us better. Then we get a little more space. That’s why I’m still confident that we will finish it.”

© Isosport

The Leuven team will meet Union, Club Brugge and KV Mechelen in their last three matches. And whether it will be exciting in the coming weeks. “It’s going to be a fight to the end. We actually already knew that, but somehow we still hoped to be safe a little earlier. That won’t happen. Fortunately, we are just above the red zone, so the teams behind us will have to overtake us. We will have to fight to maintain that until the end.”

“Scoring remains difficult. We don’t create enough clear-cut chances and that has been a problem before. This makes it difficult to win matches”

Ewoud Pletinckx

Defender OHL

© Isosport

Pletinckx is not the only one who is disappointed about the poor results of the last few weeks. In Leuven they know well enough that they should have finished it long ago against the competitors at the bottom. “A draw against RWDM is certainly not enough,” captain Mathieu Maertens also emphasized. “We are one point ahead of Charleroi, but I am not really happy with that. We need a win, and why not against Union?” Let’s see whether OHL can put an obstacle in the way of the authoritarian leader at all. Just remember that Union’s last league defeat dates back to September 16.

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