Orée have created the first gap at the top of the men’s Belgian league thanks to their big 3-2 win over KHC Leuven, making it four wins out of four.

In a battle between two sides with 100% records, the Brussels side fell behind in the first quarter with Lautaro Diaz on the mark.

But their rivals netted the next three goals via Facundo Callioni, Timothée Clément and Tomi Domene to make it 3-1 before half-time. Jerome Dekeyser got one back after the break and the post denied Ricardo Santana an equaliser with seven minutes to go.

“This meeting was a serious test after our first three friendlier games, without disrespecting our opponents, ” said Dorian Thiery after the match to Le Soir. 

“We hadn’t defended too well in our first 3 outings but today we have shown that we can show consistency for four quarters. We must remain very humble after these four successes. 

“There are still a lot of complicated games to tackle in this first round. We have not been spared from injuries since the preseason. We were also missing two important ones for this duel with the absences of John-John Dohmen and Jonathan Beckers. 

“We have six new players and that can confuse our opponents a bit who don’t really know what to expect. But we must continue to work and further increase our intensity in the game.”

La Gantoise also lost their perfect record when they drew a high octane 3-3 draw against Waterloo Ducks. 

Tommy Willems started hostilities in the 27th minute with a superb assist from captain Gauthier Boccard. Leandro Tolini equalised from a corner before Emile Esquelin then gave the visitors the lead seven minutes later. 

The Flandrians, who had to do without the services of Juan Saladino, seemed to take the ascendancy but it was Willems who equalised (49th) before Louis Capelle and Etienne Tynenvez exchanged further goals.

Royal Leopold, meanwhile, lost for a second successive week, going down 2-1 to Herakles to leave them in sixth place.