Gent come from behind to dump Charleroi out of the cup

On Matchday 1 of the Europe Play-Offs, there were few chances in the first half until Storm scored for Mechelen following a lucky deflection. A few minutes later, the visitors doubled their lead when Druijf rounded off a quick counterattack. After the break, the Buffalos came out fighting and had brought it back to 2-2 by the 49th minute, thanks to goals from Yaremchuk and Odjidja. Gent came close to finding a winner on a few occasions but it was not to be, so the game ended all square KAA GENT TEAM YR KV MECHELEN 18 SHOTS (incl. blocked shots) 14 6 SHOTS ON TARGET 6 54,3% DUELS WON   45,7% 82,1% PASS ACCURACY   81,9% 51,7% BALL POSSESSION   48,3%  

Gent had to win away at SV Zulte Waregem to get into the Play-Offs, and they grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. Castro-Montes opened the scoring and Yaremchuk doubled their lead on the half hour. Just after half time, Castro-Montes smashed in his second of the night, before Ngadeu scored with a great header to make it four and Odjidja made it 5-0 from the spot. Substitute De Bruyn also got onto the scoresheet, and Yaremchuk finished off the rout. Late strikes from Bruno and Pletinckx gave the home side a semblance of dignity, but the outcome was never in doubt: the Buffalos had three points and a place in the European Play-Offs in the bag. SV ZULTE WAREGEM TEAM KAA GENT 6 SHOTS 14 4 SHOTS ON TARGET 7 67,1% SHOT ACCURACY 50,0% 0,51 EXPECTED GOALS 3,09 1 BIG CHANCES 5 46,2% POSSESSION 53,8% 430 PASSES 513 84,2% PASS ACCURACY 84,4%

The Buffalos remain in with a shout of reaching Play-Off 2 after a comfortable 4-0 victory over R Charleroi SC. They got off to a dream start with two goals in the first eight minutes from Bezus, the second of which came from the spot, and they dominated the rest of the half. Though Charleroi came out fighting after the break, once Tissoudali had curled a brilliant strike into the top corner, the result was beyond doubt. Gent's fourth and final goal came from debutant De Bruyn, on a substitute after a long period out injured. KAA GENT TEAM SPORTING CHARLEROI 8 SHOTS ON TARGET 2 47,1% SHOT ACCURACY 22,2% 2,75 EXPECTED GOALS 1,04 3 BIG CHANCES 1 56,3% BALL POSSESSION 43,7% 522 PASSES 402 82,6% PASS ACCURACY 76,6%