Leuven will be looking to pick up back-to-back home wins when they go head to head with Cercle Brugge in round four of the Belgian Pro League on Sunday.
The Groen en Zwart journey to the King Power at Den Dreef Stadion unbeaten in each of their last four games against the home side since February 2022 and will be aiming to extend this impressive run.
Match preview
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Leuven were denied consecutive victories for the first time in the 2024-25 Pro League season as they could only salvage a 1-1 stalemate against Anderlecht when the two sides met last Saturday.
Denmark international Kasper Dolberg opened the scoring at Lotto Park to put Anderlecht ahead in the 35th minute but 29-year-old Mathieu Maertens netted on the stroke of half time to draw the visitors level and force a share of the spoils.
This followed a 3-1 home victory over Genk on August 3, when Youssef Maziz, Thibault Vlietinck and Jon Dagur Porsteinsson all found the back of the net to put the Blauw-Wit to the sword and deny them a third straight win.
Having kicked off the new campaign with a goalless draw with Beerschot on July 28, Leuven have now gone unbeaten in the opening three games and will look to build an early-season form as they look to improve on their performance from last term.
Oscar Garcia's men picked up 29 points from their 30 matches in the regular season to end in 12th place and book their spot in the Europa Conference League qualifying group, where they won just four of their 10 games and finished fourth in the table.
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Despite claiming a 1-0 victory over Molde on Tuesday, Cercle Brugge were dumped out of the Europa League qualifiers as they suffered a 3-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of the Norwegian outfit in the reverse leg on August 8.
Playing for pride in front of the Jan Breydel Stadium crowd, Abdoul Kader Ouattara came up trumps for the Bruges outfit as he netted the only goal of the game in the 41st minute to hand them a 1-0 victory and as they fell out of the Europa League qualification race with their heads held high.
Prior to that, Cercle Brugge secured their first win of the new league campaign last weekend when they thrashed Beerschot 4-1 thanks to goals from Bruno Gonclaves, Kazeem Olaigbe, Kevin Denkey and Ouattara.
Miron Muslic's side had suffered a humbling 3-0 defeat at the hands of Westerlo in the season curtain-raider on July 28, one week before they were beaten 2-1 by Kortrijk courtesy of goals from Nacho Ferri and Mark Mampasi.
While Cercle Brugge have picked up two wins in their last two matches, both of which have come at home, they will need to show their mettle on Sunday as they have failed to win six of their last seven competitive games on the road, losing three and claiming three draws since mid-April.
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Team News
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Despite playing 90 minutes of the final pre-season games against Lens on April 20, Federico Ricca has missed the opening three games through a knock and is a major doubt for Sunday.
Sofian Kiyine is also yet to feature for Leuven since the start of the new campaign due to a muscle problem and the Moroccan midfielder is out of contention for the home side.
Meanwhile, Cercle Brugge will take to the pitch without the services of Guinea international Ibrahim Diakite, who has been sidelined since suffering a severe muscle injury back in July.
Edgaras Utkus missed the game against Molde through a muscle injury and is a doubt for Sunday's game while 21-year-old Nils De Wilde has been ruled out since April through a hamstring problem.
They are joined on the Groen en Zwart injury table by French forward Malamine Efekele, who came off in the pre-season game against Feyenoord on July 20.
Leuven possible starting lineup:
Leysen; Schingtienne, Pletinckx, Akimoto; Vlietinck, Verstraete, Schrijvers, Mendyl; Balikwisha, Maertens, N'Dri
Cercle Brugge possible starting lineup:
Warleson; Ravych, Daland, Miangue; Nazinho, Van Der Bruggen; Francis, Bruninho, Somers, Olaigbe; Denkey
We say: Leuven 2-2 Cercle Brugge
The last six meetings between Leuven and Cercle Brugge have produced a combined 16 goals and we look forward to any other end-to-end battle at the King Power at Den Dreef Stadion Hmmm on Sunday. That said, we predict that both sides will cancel out each other's efforts and settle for a share of the spoils.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
