St. Truiden secured a comfortable 4-0 victory over RAAL La Louvière in the Jupiler Pro League's fifth round at the Stayen. The hosts controlled proceedings from the outset, capitalising on their superior possession and territory to build an unassailable lead. By then, the result felt inevitable rather than surprising.
Ryan Merlen opened the scoring in the forty-first minute, a well-taken effort that gave the home side the advantage they deserved. Robert-Jan Vanwesemael doubled the lead shortly after the interval, and Samed Baždar added two more to seal the outcome. His second goal in the seventy-eighth minute closed the contest out with authority.
The yellow cards came at intervals — Mustapha Isah Ubandoma in the ninth minute, Ilias Sebaoui thirteen minutes later, and Shaquil Delos sixty-one minutes in. The home side made several changes in the second half, bringing on Ryotaro Araki and Mustapha Isah Ubandoma together in the seventy-fourth minute when the game was already settled.
And here's the thing about the statistics: St. Truiden held 72 per cent possession and registered sixteen shots to RAAL's six, with seven on target against just one. The visitors created nothing of note — zero big chances compared to four for the hosts — and their shot accuracy of eleven per cent tells its own story. They were second to everything.
We had backed a home win in our preview, with fifty-three per cent confidence, and the match played out precisely as we expected. St. Truiden had lost their last outing 3-0 to Union Saint-Gilloise, but this performance showed a different character. To be fair, the visitors have managed only one point from five games and look increasingly precarious.
The result leaves St. Truiden seventh with eight points from five matches, while RAAL La Louvière remain bottom of the table on a solitary point. The home side's recent form has been mixed — they beat Anderlecht 4-1 but lost to Omonia Nicosia 4-2 — yet this was the kind of performance that separates them from the newcomers.