The goals of the match were scored by Kaba (1st, 90th+3) for Louvain and Sadick (19th) for Genk. The Limburgians made a bad operation by leaving all their competitors in the 2 playoffs, including Leuven, to get closer to their 8th place. The match started on a high, from the first minute: on a Maertens cross from the right flank, Kaba sneaked into the heart of a defense not yet awake to send the ball flat-footed in the goals of Vandevoordt (1-0, 1st). A floating strike from Bongonda served as a reply (6th) before things got worse for Genk as Heynen received a red card following wiping his sole on the Leuven scorer (14th).
Outnumbered, Genk nevertheless raised the lead with a new send-off from Bongonda (17th) followed by Sadick’s equalizer, alone in receiving a stopped phase kicked by Tresor (1-1, 19th) while Onuachu had attracted the defense with him. The end of the half was poor in clear chances, except for a strike by Bongonda that crashed on the batten as Runarsson was beaten (45th).
Onuachu showed himself following the rest, turning around to eliminate his opponent and hit, but his sending-off was too central (62nd). Mercier tried a brilliant move, hitting the ball dryly when everyone expected a cross, and only the cross came to the aid of Vandevoordt (69e).
With a quarter of an hour to go, Paintsil had a great opportunity on a counterattack roundly led by Genk from a rebound of the goalkeeper, but the Ghanaian crossed the road of Runarsson, well positioned (75th). Soon following, Preciado rewarded the public with a solitary rush that finally resulted in a strike too removed (79th).
While the situation had unraveled from the first seconds, the fate of the match was decided in the last moments. On an a priori innocuous phase, the video referee detected a Limburg hand and awarded a penalty to Leuven. The scorer of the start of the match took responsibility and converted his penalty, which he had to kick twice, to definitively offer the victory to his side (2-1, 90th+3).
In the standings, Louvain (33 points) is 2 small points closer to Genk and the 8th place, synonymous with playoffs 2. The Limburgers are suffering a second defeat in 3 games here and will have to proudly defend their place to play for a European qualification next season.
