2018–19 Belgian First Division A

The 2018–19 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League) was the 116th season of top-tier football in Belgium.

Belgian First Division A

Season	2018–19
Dates	27 July 2018 – 19 May 2019
Champions	Genk
Relegated	Lokeren
Champions League	Genk Club Brugge
Europa League	Standard Liège Royal Antwerp Gent
Top goalscorer	Hamdi Harbaoui (25 goals)
← 2017–18 2019–20 → All statistics correct as of 12 May 2019.

Team changes

• Mechelen was relegated after finishing last in the 2017–18 Belgian First Division A, ending a streak of 11 seasons at the highest level.
• Cercle Brugge was promoted after winning the promotion play-offs against Beerschot Wilrijk. The club returns to the highest tier three seasons after relegation from the Belgian Pro League in 2014–15.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Anderlecht

Antwerp

Charleroi

Bruges

Genk

Gent

Kortrijk

Standard Liège

Eupen

Lokeren

Oostende

Mouscron

Sint-Truiden

Waasland-
Beveren

Zulte Waregem

Bruges teams
Cercle Brugge
Club Brugge

Locations of the 2018–19 Belgian First Division A teams

Matricule	Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
35	Anderlecht	Anderlecht	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium	21,500
1	Antwerp	Antwerp	Bosuilstadion	12,975
12	Cercle Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
22	Charleroi	Charleroi	Stade du Pays de Charleroi	14,000
3	Club Brugge	Bruges	Jan Breydel Stadium	29,042
4276	Eupen	Eupen	Kehrweg Stadion	8,363
322	Genk	Genk	Luminus Arena	24,956
7	Gent	Ghent	Ghelamco Arena	20,000
19	Kortrijk	Kortrijk	Guldensporen Stadion	9,399
282	Lokeren	Lokeren	Daknamstadion	12,000
216	Excel Mouscron	Mouscron	Stade Le Canonnier	10,571
31	Oostende	Ostend	Versluys Arena	8,432
373	Sint-Truiden	Sint-Truiden	Stayen	14,600
16	Standard Liège	Liège	Stade Maurice Dufrasne	30,023
4068	Waasland-Beveren	Beveren	Freethiel Stadion	8,190
5381	Zulte Waregem	Waregem	Regenboogstadion	12,500

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Anderlecht	Karim Belhocine	Adrien Trebel	Adidas	BNP Paribas Fortis
Antwerp	László Bölöni	Faris Haroun	Jako	Heylen Vastgoed
Cercle Brugge	José Jeunechamps	Benjamin Lambot	Erima	ADMB
Charleroi	Felice Mazzu	Francisco Martos	Kappa	Proximus
Club Brugge	Ivan Leko	Ruud Vormer	Macron	Daikin
Eupen	Claude Makélélé	Luis García	Nike	Aspire Academy
Excel Mouscron	Bernd Storck	Jérémy Huyghebaert	Erima	Star Casino
Genk	Philippe Clement	Alejandro Pozuelo	Nike	Beobank
Gent	Jess Thorup	Nana Asare	Craft	vdk bank
Kortrijk	Yves Vanderhaeghe	Hannes Van der Bruggen	Jako	AGO Jobs & HR
Lokeren	Glen De Boeck	Killian Overmeire	Beltona	QTeam
Oostende	Franky Van der Elst	Nicolas Lombaerts	Joma	Willems Veranda's
Sint-Truiden	Marc Brys	Jordan Botaka	Olympic	Golden Palace
Standard Liège	Michel Preud'homme	Sébastien Pocognoli	New Balance	BASE
Waasland-Beveren	Adnan Čustović	Milan Massop	Kappa	Circus.be
Zulte-Waregem	Francky Dury	Davy De fauw	Patrick	Willy Naessens Group

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Sint-Truiden	Jonas De Roeck	Replaced	End of 2017–18 season [n 1]	Pre-season	Marc Brys	21 May 2018 [1]
Oostende	Adnan Čustović		End of 2017–18 season		Gert Verheyen	25 April 2018 [n 2] [2]
Cercle Brugge	Franky Vercauteren	Mutual consent	End of 2017–18 season		Laurent Guyot	6 June 2018 [3]
Standard Liège	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Resigned	End of 2017–18 season		Michel Preud'homme	23 May 2018 [4]
Waasland-Beveren	Dirk Geeraerd	Caretaker replaced	End of 2017–18 season		Yannick Ferrera	8 June 2018 [5]
Excel Mouscron	Frank Defays	Sacked	30 August 2018 [6]	16th	Bernd Storck	2 September 2018 [7]
Gent	Yves Vanderhaeghe		8 October 2018 [8]	7th	Jess Thorup	10 October 2018 [9]
Lokeren	Peter Maes		27 October 2018 [10]	15th	Arnar Viðarsson (caretaker)	27 October 2018 [10]
Lokeren	Arnar Viðarsson (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	2 November 2018 [11][n 3]	16th	Trond Sollied	2 November 2018 [11]
Waasland-Beveren	Yannick Ferrera	Sacked	11 November 2018 [12]	14th	Adnan Čustović	17 November 2018 [13]
Kortrijk	Glen De Boeck		15 November 2018 [14]	12th	Yves Vanderhaeghe	15 November 2018 [15]
Anderlecht	Hein Vanhaezebrouck		16 December 2018 [16]	4th	Karim Belhocine (caretaker)	16 December 2018 [16]
Anderlecht	Karim Belhocine (caretaker)	Caretaker replaced	6 January 2019 [17]	5th	Fred Rutten	6 January 2019 [17]
Lokeren	Trond Sollied	Sacked	20 January 2019 [18]	16th	Glen De Boeck	20 January 2019 [18]
Oostende	Gert Verheyen	Resigned	6 March 2019 [19]	14th	Hugo Broos (caretaker)	6 March 2019 [19]
Anderlecht	Fred Rutten	Mutual consent	16 April 2019 [20]	Regular season: 4th Championship POs: 5th	Karim Belhocine (caretaker)	16 April 2019 [21]
Oostende	Hugo Broos (caretaker)	Resigned	29 April 2019 [22]	Regular season: 14th Europa League POs: 4th	Franky Van der Elst (caretaker)	29 April 2019 [22]
Cercle Brugge	Laurent Guyot	Mutual consent	2 May 2019 [23]	Regular season: 13th Europa League POs: 4th	José Jeunechamps (caretaker)	2 May 2019 [23]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Genk	30	18	9	3	63	31	+32	63	Qualification for the championship play-offs
2	Club Brugge	30	16	8	6	64	32	+32	56
3	Standard Liège	30	15	8	7	49	35	+14	53
4	Anderlecht	30	15	6	9	49	34	+15	51
5	Gent	30	15	5	10	53	45	+8	50
6	Antwerp	30	14	7	9	39	34	+5	49
7	Sint-Truiden	30	12	11	7	47	36	+11	47	Qualification for the Europa League play-offs
8	Kortrijk	30	12	7	11	44	42	+2	43
9	Charleroi	30	12	6	12	43	43	0	42
10	Excel Mouscron	30	11	7	12	33	33	0	40
11	Zulte Waregem	30	8	9	13	49	60	−11	33
12	Eupen	30	10	2	18	34	57	−23	32
13	Cercle Brugge	30	7	7	16	35	59	−24	28
14	Oostende	30	6	9	15	29	52	−23	27
15	Waasland-Beveren	30	5	12	13	37	50	−13	27
16	Lokeren (R)	30	5	5	20	28	53	−25	20	Relegation to First Division B

Source: Belgian First Division A (in Dutch), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[24]
(R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	AND	ANT	CER	CHA	CLU	EUP	EXM	GNK	GNT	KVK	LOK	OOS	STA	STR	W-B	ZWA
Anderlecht	—	1–1	4–2	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	5–2	2–1	0–0	3–0	0–0
Antwerp	0–1	—	1–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	2–1	2–4	2–2	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–3	0–2	5–1
Cercle Brugge	2–1	0–3	—	2–1	2–2	0–1	2–1	2–5	0–3	1–1	3–2	2–2	1–2	1–2	2–0	3–1
Charleroi	1–2	0–1	3–1	—	2–1	1–2	3–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–2	3–2
Club Brugge	2–1	5–1	4–0	0–1	—	5–2	1–2	3–1	1–1	3–0	2–1	4–0	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–3
Eupen	2–1	1–2	2–0	1–4	0–4	—	1–0	0–2	2–3	0–1	4–1	1–2	2–1	1–4	1–0	2–3
Excel Mouscron	3–1	0–1	3–0	3–0	0–1	0–1	—	0–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	0–3	0–0
Genk	1–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–2	—	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	3–2	4–0
Gent	1–0	0–0	4–1	2–1	0–4	2–0	1–2	1–5	—	3–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–2	4–1	1–1
Kortrijk	1–4	2–0	2–1	1–2	0–0	1–3	1–0	3–3	1–2	—	2–1	1–2	0–2	3–1	2–2	4–2
Lokeren	1–2	2–1	3–1	2–4	0–1	2–0	0–0	0–4	2–2	1–3	—	0–0	0–3	2–0	1–0	0–3
Oostende	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	0–2	0–4	1–2	1–0	—	1–3	1–1	1–1	3–1
Standard Liège	2–1	0–2	0–0	0–0	3–1	3–0	1–1	1–1	3–2	2–1	3–1	3–1	—	3–2	4–3	4–1
Sint-Truiden	4–2	2–0	0–0	3–1	2–2	4–1	3–1	2–3	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	—	2–1	2–1
Waasland-Beveren	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	1–2	2–1	2–6	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	—	1–1
Zulte Waregem	1–2	1–2	3–2	3–1	2–5	4–0	2–2	3–3	1–3	0–2	2–0	1–1	3–1	1–1	2–2	—

Source: Belgian Pro League (in Dutch)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship play-offs

The points obtained during the regular season were halved (and rounded up) before the start of the playoff. As a result, the teams started with the following points before the playoff: Genk 32 points, Club Brugge 28, Standard Liège 27, Anderlecht 26, Gent 25 and Antwerp 25. The points of Genk, Standard Liège, Anderlecht and Antwerp were rounded up, therefore in case of any ties on points at the end of the playoffs, the half point will be deducted for these teams.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GNK	CLU	STA	ANT	GNT	AND
1	Genk (C)	10	6	2	2	19	8	+11	52	Qualification for the Champions League group stage		—	3–1	0–0	4–0	2–1	3–0
2	Club Brugge	10	7	1	2	19	11	+8	50	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round		3–2	—	4–0	3–2	3–0	1–0
3	Standard Liège	10	4	1	5	17	16	+1	40	Qualification for the Europa League group stage		1–3	2–0	—	3–1	2–3	5–0 FF[a]
4	Antwerp (O)	10	4	2	4	12	16	−4	39	Qualification for the Europa League play-off Final		1–0	0–0	2–1	—	1–2	1–1
5	Gent	10	3	1	6	10	15	−5	35	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[b]		0–1	0–1	1–2	1–2	—	2–1
6	Anderlecht	10	1	3	6	8	19	−11	32			1–1	2–3	2–1	1–2	0–0	—

Source: Sport.be
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points without (possible) half points added due to rounding; 3) Position obtained during the Regular season^[27]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners
Notes:

1. Match was abandoned near the end of the first half as Anderlecht supporters had been throwing flares and smoke bombs on the pitch. At that time Standard was leading 2–0.^[25] A few weeks later Anderlecht was fined 5.000 Euro and forced to play one match behind closed doors, with the match result set to a 5–0 win for Standard.^[26]
2. After the season, 2018–19 Belgian Cup winners KV Mechelen were found guilty of match-fixing as part of the 2017–18 Belgian football fraud investigation, allowing Standard Liège to enter in the group stage instead of the third qualifying round, the fourth-placed team of the league, Royal Antwerp, entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round, and the second qualifying round berth was given to the fifth-placed team of the league, Gent. This decision is subject to appeal.

Europa League play-offs

Group A of the play-offs consist of the teams finishing in positions 7, 9, 12 and 14 during the regular season and the first and third placed team in the qualifying positions in the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B. The teams finishing in positions 8, 10, 11, 13 and 15 were joined by the second placed qualifier from the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B in group B.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CHA	STR	WES	OOS	EUP	B‑W
1	Charleroi	10	7	1	2	20	7	+13	22	Qualification for the Europa League play-off semi-final		—	2–0	2–0	1–2	2–0	4–0
2	Sint-Truiden	10	4	5	1	16	13	+3	17			3–1	—	2–1	1–0	2–2	2–2
3	Westerlo	10	3	3	4	13	12	+1	12			0–2	2–2	—	0–0	1–0	1–1
4	Oostende	10	3	3	4	12	15	−3	12			2–2	1–1	0–3	—	1–2	2–1
5	Eupen	10	3	2	5	9	15	−6	11			0–1	1–1	0–3	3–2	—	1–0
6	Beerschot Wilrijk	10	2	2	6	11	19	−8	8			0–3	1–2	3–2	1–2	2–0	—

Updated to match(es) played on completed. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[24]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KVK	USG	W‑B	ZWA	EXM	CER
1	Kortrijk	10	8	0	2	26	12	+14	24	Qualification for the Europa League play-off semi-final		—	0–1	2–1	4–2	3–1	4–0
2	Union SG	10	6	2	2	24	14	+10	20			2–0	—	5–1	2–2	3–3	3–1
3	Waasland-Beveren	10	4	1	5	17	24	−7	13			2–3	3–2	—	0–5	2–1	2–1
4	Zulte Waregem	10	3	4	3	22	22	0	13			0–5	2–1	0–0	—	2–2	6–2
5	Excel Mouscron	10	2	2	6	19	22	−3	8			2–3	0–2	2–4	3–0	—	2–3
6	Cercle Brugge	10	2	1	7	16	30	−14	7			1–2	2–3	3–2	3–3	0–3	—

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Matches won; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Away goals scored; 6) Away matches won; 7) Play-off.^[24]

Semi-final

The winners of both play-off groups competed in one match to play the fourth-placed team of the championship play-offs for a spot in the final. This match was played on the field of the highest ranked team in the regular competition. Charleroi advanced to the final to play for a spot in the second qualifying round of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League.

Kortrijk	1–2	Charleroi
Ezekiel 6'	Report	Osimhen 42' 56'

22 May 2019 (2019-05-22)

20:30 CEST

Guldensporen Stadion, Kortrijk

Attendance: 7,500

Referee: Jonathan Lardot

Final

The winner of the Europa League play-off semi-final and the fourth-placed team of the championship play-offs played one match to determine the Europa League play-off winner. Antwerp qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League.

Antwerp	3–2	Charleroi
Mbokani 16' 67' Rafaelov 22' (pen.)	Report	Osimhen 1' Dessoleil 12'

26 May 2019 (2019-05-26)

14:30 CEST

Bosuilstadion, Antwerp

Attendance: 11,502

Referee: Nicolas Laforge

Number of teams by provinces

Number of teams	Province or region	Team(s)
5	West Flanders	Cercle Brugge, Club Brugge, Kortrijk, Oostende and Zulte Waregem
3	East Flanders	Gent, Lokeren and Waasland-Beveren
2	Hainaut	Charleroi and Excel Mouscron
	Liège	Eupen and Standard Liège
	Limburg	Genk and Sint-Truiden
1	Antwerp	Antwerp
	Brussels	Anderlecht

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played on 17 May 2019.^[28]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Hamdi Harbaoui	Zulte Waregem	25
2	Mbwana Samatta	Genk	23
3	Ivan Santini	Anderlecht	16
	Victor Osimhen	Charleroi
5	Daichi Kamada	Sint-Truiden	15
	Felipe Avenatti	Kortrijk
7	Leandro Trossard	Genk	14
	Theo Bongonda	Zulte Waregem
	Hans Vanaken	Club Brugge
10	Ruslan Malinovskyi	Genk	13

Clean sheets

As of matches played on 17 May 2019.^[29]

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Danny Vukovic	Genk	14
2	Sinan Bolat	Antwerp	13
3	Ethan Horvath	Club Brugge	11
4	Jean Butez	Excel Mouscron	9
	Thomas Didillon	Anderlecht
	Guillermo Ochoa	Standard Liège
7	Thomas Kaminski	Kortrijk / Gent	8
8	Nicolas Penneteau	Charleroi	7
9	Hendrik Van Crombrugge	Eupen	6
10	Ortwin De Wolf	Lokeren	5

Notes

1. The announcement of De Roeck being replaced was made on 20 April 2018, together with the news he would complete the season.
2. Verheyen was announced as manager on 25 April 2018 but only replaced Adnan Čustović after the final match of the season.
3. The announcement of Viðarsson being replaced was made on 29 October 2018, but he remained in charge for the match against Anderlecht on 1 November, with Sollied taking over only the day after.