KV Mechelen vs Union Saint-Gilloise Prediction: Will Mechelen stop the roaring Gilloise?

In the fourth round of the Belgian Pro League, the league-leading Union Saint-Gilloise will play KV Mechelen at Achter de Kazerne. The home club fell to the newly promoted RWDM in their most recent match, while Union Saint-Gilloise went wild in their victory against Leuven at home.

After suffering a 1-0 loss in their previous match against RWD in First Division A, KV Mechelen will be looking to get back on track this time. The lone goal was scored by Mickael Biron in the 744th minute for RWD. KV Mechelen has not been successful in maintaining their defense for the whole three quarters of the game very frequently in recent seasons. In fact, KV Mechelen have conceded a total of eight goals throughout their most recent six matches since they have been unable to keep their opponents from scoring in any of those matches.

Union Saint-Gilloise comes into this match having won all of their previous five matches against Anderlecht, Standard Liège, Leuven, Valenciennes, and Oostende. In those matches, the visiting Gilloise side scored ten goals while giving up one in that span. When playing away from home, Union Saint-Gilloise had a goal scoring average of 2.67 and a goals against average of 0.33. The squad was shown a total of 7 yellow cards but none of the more serious red cards, while they committed a total of 36 fouls. The Union Saint-Gilloise squad receives an average rating of 6.71 per game. This season, Union Saint-Gilloise has maintained a very respectable ball possession rate of 56.33 percent on average across the board.

Over the course of the last 19 seasons, KV Mechelen and Union Saint-Gilloise have played each other a total of 19 times, with KV Mechelen coming out on top 10 times and Union Saint-Gilloise taking home 4 victories. A total of five of the games were decided by a draw. In the head-to-head matchups between the two teams, KV Mechelen scored 26 goals, while Union Saint-Gilloise were only able to score 22.

Even though they will be playing at home, the leaders of the league shouldn't have any trouble winning, even though this shouldn't be an easy game for Union Saint-Gilloise. In the meantime, despite the fact that KV Mechelen have not been playing at their best level this season, I still anticipate them to deliver solid performances and, at the very least, keep their goal differential low.