The Wolves are back: RAAL celebrate their return to the Challenger Pro League with a win over Francs Borains

RAAL beat RFB 1-0 on Sunday, without facing much resistance.

The Challenger Pro League kicked off this weekend with a Henegouwen derby between Francs Borains, who narrowly avoided relegation last season, and RAAL, making their return to professional football. And it was the Wolves who came away with all three points at the Stade Robert Urbain.

Very quickly, RAAL exploited the spaces behind the Borain defence, particularly taking advantage of Dorian Dessoleil, who still seemed a bit rusty after a year out at Antwerp. Nagera took advantage and crossed, but Maes missed his shot (17th minute). A few minutes later, it happened again: this time, Mouhamed Belkheir didn’t hesitate after beating Dessoleil to it (20th minute, 0-1).

Gies prevents a much larger scoreline

RAAL were more present in the duels and in the midfield, but RFB finished the first half well: Prunier hit the post (29th minute), Lavie sent a volley just over (45+1 minute) and Ruiz-Atil missed a header from the penalty spot right at the end of added time (45+3 minutes).

The second half was a bit more chaotic: Xavier Gies had to prevent a second goal from a long-range free-kick (53rd minute), before Charleroi loanee Mondy Prunier missed the target after a great piece of work by Lavie (66th minute).

Gies then had to pull off several saves to keep RFB in the game, while Francs Borains struggled to create any real danger. The score remained unchanged and the Wolves, backed by a very vocal group of supporters, took their first three points in the Challenger Pro League. For RFB, there is clearly work to be done, as there was a lot missing in terms of both play and impact on Sunday…