With the start of a new season for Belgium Jupiler League, we saw Club Brugge taking their first 3 points. That result was to our likings, when Club Brugge defeated KV Mechelen (0:2). It has given us nice profit, and now we strive to keep the “streak” going with the 2nd match ahead of us. Today we will witness Mouscron hosting Anderlecht at Stade Le Canonnier.
Mouscron
Last season for Mouscron can only be described as “weak”, as they were really close to be relegated. Finishing the season at bitter 14th place, with only 1 point ahead of Leuven, who were relegated in Proximus League. This year they expect a better season, so the bitter “survival battle” to stay in Jupiler League won’t repeat.
In comparison to last season, this time they did not change the whole squad. New coach Gled De Boek (appointed in January) kept the core players of the squad and decided to get some new players on loan. The most important singings are Simon Diedhiou, young defender Stefan Simic and keeper Matej Delac, whereas they lost their striker Skepovic.
As for the preparation matches, they can be described as promising, with 5 wins and 1 draw in last 6 friendlies. The matches played are as follows; Tornai (0:5), Ronse (0:3), Seraing (0:4), St. Gilloise (2:2), KSV Roeselare (0:2) and Dender (0:2). But knowing those teams Mouscron played against are much weaker than Anderlecht, those wins do not mean much when analysing the strength of the squad ahead of today’s match.
Anderlecht
Compared to today’s opponents, their goals for this season are understandably much higher. Winning the championship or the cup is a goal Anderlecht can achieve, whereas Mouscron would need a few miracles to come close to that. There is also qualifications for Champions League ahead of Anderlecht, and they seem to be doing well. In the first leg of qualifications, Anderlecht managed to draw against Rostov (2:2), despite having a lead 2 times. After somewhat bitter draw, the positive side is that Anderlecht scored 2 goals on the road, which will give them huge advantage ahead of 2nd leg in Brussels.
Verdict
With the start of a new season, we can only look at matches played in the last season between these two teams, to give us a insight of how this match will play out. H2H matches show us, Mouscron is not afraid of Anderlecht. Out of 4 matches these two teams played, the winner seems to be decided by the pitch they play on. The home team won every time. Last 2 matches played at Stade Le Canonnier ended in (2:1) and (4:2) before that. With that in mind, I do not see this match to play out with one team attacking and the other defending the whole 90 minutes. Expect an open game with at least 3 goals.
Prediction: Over 2.5
Odds: 1.92 Pinnacle
