7 more rounds to play and by the looks of it the Jupiler Pro League has turned in a competition played at 2 speeds. Around 40% of the teams don't have a real goal or relegation trouble anymore, so they are probably already preparing the next season.

The other 60% still goes full speed ahead. Trying to stay ahead (Club Brugge), the one trying to stay in PO I or the ones who do want to get in there and that one club which still believes that they can avoid relegation!

Take a look at the standings and you will know why!

At the top of the table we do find Club Brugge, miles ahead of the rest of the compeition. They still have a 10 point lead, with one game less played. Only 1 game lost and which is maybe the most impressive thing is that they only got 9 goals against in 21 games. At the end of the summer transfer window they did buy Mignolet from Liverpool and while he isn't the only one to thanks for this impressive statistic, he can take more than 50% of the credits for it!

I don't see how Club Brugge can't win the regular competition. The followers for sure will also spill some points so I just can't see them collecting 10 more point than Brugge.

But this does not mean that Club Brugge will be crowned Champion. The Play offs are a pretty strange thing. First of all all points are halved. So a 10 point lead now will be only a 5 point lead at the start of the Play Off. Loosing the first game can have a huge impact on the remaining 9.

Play off spots! (Top 6)

At the moment I still do consider that 4 of the 5 reamining places are already carved in stone. Gent, Antwerp, Charleroi and Standard should have enough points already to stay in the top 6.

So Genk, KV Mechelen and Zulte Waregem will have to fight it out!
While Genk now finally stands within the top 6, they do have the thougest route to this play offs. 6 out of their 7 remaining games will have to be played against other teams from the top 8. Starting with an away game to Gent this weekend. If Genk doesn't end within the top 6, one cannot blame it on these last 7 games, they just have lost too many points before the winter break. A win away at Gent isn't necesarry but a draw is.

KV Mechelen also has a tough away game at Charleroi. And Mechelen is a complete different team on the road then when playing in their own stadion.

Waregem desperatly needs a 3 pointer to keep their dreams alive. But this won't be easy away against Antwerp. Luckily for Waregem, Antwerp did had a cup game on Thursday evening and Lamkel Ze is again making troubles in the dressing room. This time he claimed the ball the shoot the penalty while not being the designated penalty taker. And we all know what does happen in these situations. The penalty was missed.
If Zulte doesn't win away at Antwerp and Genk or Mechelen do win, it will turn into a 2 horse race!

Relegation

At the bottom of the table we do find Cercle Brugge. It is sad to see them there, because they did play soo much better this season then Oostende or Waasland-Beveren, but if you don't win any games ...
The problem they also had is that if they did win in a weekend, Oostende and Waasland also won. Due to this they just weren't capable of decreasing the backlog. So Waasland and Oostende can play freely and without pressure. Waasland has an excellent change this weekend at home against Eupen to increase the lead over Cercle even more.

Cercle themselves do have a home game against Anderlecht. It is hard to tell how this game can evolve. Because Anderlecht is too inconstant. Each good game, which does give the sups hope that they way up has been started is followed by a awful performance.

So to sum it up: Waregem could lose dreams on a PO I spot this weekend and Cercle could get into even bigger problems. The point where it is mathematicel not possible anymore to avoidn relegation is coming closer week by week, with an incredible speed!

Cheers,
Peter