Antwerp VS Saint Gilloise

Antwerp and Royale Union SG lock horns in this Belgian Cup semi-final battle at Bosuilstadion early Friday morning Beijing time. Football fans and bettors can expect a pretty high-level game by Belgian standards as both teams are among the best in the Jupiler Pro League. However, this competition is not the main priority for either team this season and some squad rotation by both coaches would not be a surprise. Antwerp currently occupy the 3rd place in the league table. They have 54 points to their account and have netted the ball 46 times in this league so far. However, their number of expected goals (xG) is just 43.11. They cannot match the visitors at all in this area of the game! Indeed, Royale Union SG have scored 55 goals. They got very close to winning the championship last season and, in fact, even topped the standings after the regular season. Even so, in the Championship Group Club Brugge toppled them by a narrow margin. Indeed, the visitors are definitely the better team by pure class here. Antwerp are just two points behind them in the league table but in reality the difference between the teams in pure class is, in my opinion, much bigger. Royale Union SG have a very strong offense with a lot of individual skill, a great structure, speed and creativity. Yes, Antwerp have allowed less goals than them 24 versus 33 but in terms of expected goals allowed (xGA) the visitors have been unlucky. I do not see a difference between the teams in this area of the game. I cannot agree with the biggest, often pretty smart bookmakers that accept the biggest bets here. These cookies see the hosts as solid favorites offering them odds of around 2.35 to win during the 90 minutes of play. In my view the visitors are narrow favorites.

The visitors will surely be pretty defensive here – at least as long as no goals have been scored. Taking into account the hosts' pretty lame offensive performances lately I see the match as a little more low-scoring than the betting market. All we need is a draw to win with the +0.5 goals handicap option. Antwerp have scored just five goals in their most recent six games. They will, of course, have to take some offensive risk here as the visitors won the first leg last month. 1-0 was the final score. This would surely offer Royale Union SG chances for deadly counter attacks.. This is something the hosts are not very good at defending against! The visitors were clearly the better team in the first leg despite only having 52% ball possession. They recorded more goal attempts, attacks (132-110) and especially dangerous attacks - 77-39- They also created much more in xG. Antwerp, in fact, even failed to manage a single shot at the opponent's goal! Antwerp have taken two wins, two draws and lost once in their most recent five games. However, I have not been overly impressed by them on the pitch. For example the away win over Genk on the 12th of February was a very lucky one as the hosts recorded 1.02 in xG – Antwerp managed just 0.54 but stole all three points. The visitors have not been at their best lately losing two of their most recent matches – both 2-4. The final scores are misleading though as in both matches both teams recorded almost the same number in xG. Before these two lost games they won a huge number of games and last suffered a defeat on the 3rd of November 2022 against strong Union Berlin, a German team. 0-1 was the final score.