Standard Liège captain set to leave the club ahead of crucial play-off game. | OneFootball

Les Rouches captain Aiden O’Neill is set to join MLS side New York City for a reported €2.5 million fee. The news comes at a bad time for Liège, ahead of their critical match against OH Leuven at the Den Dreef stadium. The Australian midfielder’s only league goal for Standard coincidentally came against Saturday’s opponents back in February 2024.

After falling to a 1-0 defeat at home to OH Leuven four days ago, Les Rouches will look to exact revenge and claim their first win in the play-offs. Bottom of the table, Standard sit four points behind leaders Charleroi and have won just one match since the start of February. Goals have been extremely hard to come by and top scorer Andi Zeqiri remains injured for the for clash on Saturday. Andreas Hountondji and Ilay Camara are also not fully fit.

Manager Ivan Leko has come under scrutiny over certain selection choices and has been specifically vocal about the absence of Sotiris Alexandropoulos in the starting lineup. As reported by DH Sports, Leko says “Sotiris brings something, he knows how to take responsibility, but we’ve also played matches with him that we haven’t won. But if we win 0-3 with Sotiris in the starting lineup, I’ll be the first to say I made a mistake.”

As for OH Leuven, they look to make it six games unbeaten and Chris Coleman’s side are looking to achieve continental football for the first time in the club’s history.

Kick off is at 16:00 CET.

GBENeFN | Samuel Fabre