OHL benefits from an additional 10 (!) minutes against Standard | Jupiler Pro League 2021/2022

At Standard, all eyes were on Luka Elsner. The Slovenian canceled his contract at Kortrijk to be in the Liege pits and immediately conjured up some surprising names. Dussenne and Carcela were never a pick under Leye, but they did appear on base and on the bench respectively. Up front, Dragos and Tapsoba join Klauss, the previously often overlooked one.

Stunning offensive play didn’t pay off right away, but that wasn’t the case with OHL either. When the ball hits ahead, no teammate is reached or a tepid attempt is flipped without any problem. Long shots from the visitors ended up in good hands for Bodart and Romo didn’t have to make any heroic saves either.

However, the ban was broken before the end of the first half. Dragos seemed to snatch the neck from Liège’s attack himself, but managed to deliver the ball to Klauss, who kicked surprisingly out of turn. It was very surprising that Romo was unable to pin the ball, after which Tapsuba took advantage of the rebound to curl into the net. OHL’s response was limited to an attempt by Schrijvers, who had few shoe sizes short of really serious.

After the break it had to be something different especially with the visitors. However, the standard was the best. Soon Romo had to start after a shot from Bastian, but after a minute the Venezuelan looked less good with Dragos’ movement. He just managed to touch the ball in front of a rushing Keita, and then Romo saw the ball hit the net right next to him.

After 2-0, Dragos managed to get the ball, and only two minutes later the Roman put the ball into the basket again. The assistant referee noticed an offside, but the VAR would quickly verify it. This check eventually lasted seven long minutes, and the conclusion was that the assistant referee was right: offside, not 3-0.

When DeWest saw his connecting goal hit the crossbar, not the goal, Standard looked on track for a satisfactory victory, although 10 minutes of extra time decided otherwise. Mercier’s superb shot in the 96th minute gave Standard’s knees trembling and Capa’s equalizer in the 99th minute scored the worst of the Standard fans.

The fireworks next to OHL goalkeeper Romo was the signal for referee Van Damme to end the match. Standard awards three gold points for an amazing spot, and Standard coach Luka Elsner debuted with bad taste.