The new 2018/19 Belgian Pro League starts this week and there are some great games to look forward to watching.
One of those games is on Sunday 29th July as Charleroi and Antwerp meet at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi.
Charleroi will be looking to make up for their Championship season disappointment in the last campaign. Despite finishing third in the regular season, Charleroi were poor in the Championship phase and finished bottom of the table, missing out on European football.
Antwerp finished 8th in the regular season, 10 points adrift of Charleroi. Antwerp were drawn in Group B of the Europa League playoffs but only the winner of the group progressed and Antwerp finished third.
Charleroi have played six friendly games ahead of the new campaign but have won only two of them. There have been wins over Cercle Brugge and Valenciennes, both of which came away from home. The remaining four fixtures ended in draws against Tubize, Dijon and Nice plus a 2-0 loss at Mainz.
Charleroi have scored plenty of goals in preseason, finding the back of the net in all but one of their matches. However, conceding goals has been a problem and they have kept just two clean sheets. Charleroi enjoyed an unbeaten spell of ten home league games last season but won only one of their last five.
Antwerp have prepared very well for the new season, winning four of their five friendly games. The wins have come against Hoogstraten, Duisburg, Osnabruck and Panathinaikos, the latter of which was their most recent game and ended 2-1 in favour of the Belgians.
The only defeat in preseason came at the hands of PAOK and that game ended 3-1 to the Greek team.
Much like their hosts, Antwerp have had little difficulty in finding the back of the net during preseason but defensively there have been problems. Antwerp have scored at least once in each of their five friendly games but have conceded in four of them.
Away form towards the end of last the 2017/18 regular season was poor but improved in the Europa League playoffs, with Antwerp winning two and drawing one of their five matches.
Looking ahead to the team news and Charleroi come into this match with a clean bill of health. Kaveh Rezaei was their top goal scorer last season with 16 goals, placing him fourth in the overall charts and he is set to start up-front.
As this is the first match of the new Pro League season, Antwerp should also be at full strength, with no injury or suspension concerns. Sinan Bolat was their standout performer last season and the goalkeeper finished top of the clean sheets table, making him the Antwerp number one.
As with any first match of the new season, it is not always easy to predict what will happen. However, Charleroi were poor towards the end of last season, with trends showing they won only two of their last eighteen Pro League games. Antwerp have looked good in preseason and we could see an away win, with both teams scoring.