Standard Liege v Charleroi Preview: Walloon derby kicks off the Belgian Pro League weekend | OneFootball

Charleroi travel the short distance to Liege on Friday evening for a Walloon derby with Standard Liege. The away side are in marginally better form than a struggling Standard Liege who are set to be without club captain Marlon Fossey for the remainder of 2025.

While the two sides boast passionate fanbases that will likely put on a show when it comes to tifo’s, on the pitch in recent years there has not been much action. Each of the last two editions has been decided by the solitary goal. Last season Charleroi won two of the four encounters between the sides, with the other two ending in a draw and then a victory for Standard Liege.

Standard Liege come into this with a record of two wins from their last five games. They left it late to overcome second division side Beveren in the Belgian cup during the week, but will hope that the victory has given them some confidence ahead of the derby. Thomas Henry found the net for the first time since the early August victory over Genk and Standard Liege will be hoping he can now do so more regularly. Henry has been an important player outside of his goals as his physicality up front has been valuable to the side. Standard Liege did lose their last league match 4-0 away to Gent so head coach Vincent Euvrard will be looking for a reaction.

Charleroi also won in the cup, although they also left it late to overcome RFC Liege. With a 1-0 victory over Anderlecht last weekend, the side have turned things around after a run of four games without a win. Rik De Mil has been in demand for steering the side into European football last season, although they failed to qualify for the Conference League. While they did lost their stop scorer in Nikola Stulic in the summer, the side have now begun to rely on Parfait Guiagon who has three goals and two assists. Summer signing Patrick Pflucke has also started well with three goals, while former Dender man Aurellien Scheidler, brought in to replace Stulic, has two goals in eight games.

Charleroi will be slight favourites given their better form, but these games are notoriously cagey and could easily end in a stalemate.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson