Being Belgian having stuck it to the Russians last week, obviously Zenit St Petersburg were going to come to Brussels on Wednesday, stroll around a bit, stick the ball in the Anderlecht net three times, and have their commentator on Россия-1, as lost as anyone for famous Belgians, declare:

Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, We have beaten him all. Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, Eddy Merckx, can you hear me Eddy, can you hear me? Your boys took one hell of a beating tonight!

Little would he have known, our imaginary Russian friend, how much it would have hurt. For Eddy ‘the Cannibal’ Merckx is a Brussels Boy, a Ketje, and Anderlecht fan. He even has his own metro station in the commune.

This week, his Anderlecht sought redemption of sorts against KV Kortrijk, at the unusual start time of 9pm on Sunday evening. The reason for the delayed kick-off: car free Sunday in Brussels, which keeps everything but Eddy Merckx’s favourite form of transport out of the 19 Brussels communes, of which Anderlecht is the largest, until 8pm one Sunday every September. In a country seemingly fixated on the small – its two major tourist attractions are after all a statue of a small boy relieving himself and a rather large reconstruction of the smallest thing existing (yes I know they can split it now but let’s not split hairs!) – they think big with Europe’s largest car free day.

As the cars and the team buses rolled back into Brussels, Genk had already beaten Lokeren 3-1 to put the pressure firmly on Anderlecht to keep the distance between the two teams to only two points. It was a test they didn’t fail, Lukaku, Legear and Boussoufa scoring in a facile 3-0 win.

Elsewhere there were goals galore as Franky Dury’s Gent beat his old charges Zulte Waragem 5 – 3, while Club Brugge finally delivered on their promise in humiliating Les Zèbres 5-0 in Charleroi.

Results and match highlights below, table here.

KV Mechelen 1 – 0 Standard Liege

Cercle Bruges 4 – 2 Sint Truiden

Westerlo 2 – 0 Lierse

Eupen 0 – 1 Germinal Beerschot

Racing Genk 3 – 1 Lokeren

Charleroi 0 – 5 Club Brugge

Gent 5 – 3 Zulte Waragem

Anderlecht 3 - 0 KV Kortrijk