Charleroi had a season of two halves with the Zebras spending the entire 2017 inside the top three and looking like serious title-contenders, but struggling big time in 2018 when they only just managed to qualify for Play-off I and after that failed to make any impression on the competition, which logically saw them finishing in 6th place.
Very few summer transfers were made by coach Mazzu and this helped Charleroi to enjoy strong start to the campaign that saw them winning all of their opening five games. The main new arrival was that of centre forward Rezaei, who not only scored 16 goals during his first season in Belgium, but led the attack very well even when having to do that on his own.
Charleroi enjoyed another very strong run between rounds 13 and 19 when five more wins and two draws saw them cementing top two position, with the Zebras never dropping lower than third place in these months as they lost only 2 of their opening 19 matches.
The first game after the winter break brought a routine home win against a struggling side and this moved Charleroi just two points behind the future champions Club Brugge, but this was when all the problems begun. The downfall started in round 23 with an unexpected 0:1 away defeat against Eupen. This started an eight-game winless run until the end of the regular season, which saw Charleroi dropping from second to fifth place. The rot didn’t stop there as the Zebras earned a single point from their opening four play-off fixtures and this pretty much ended their chances to challenge for a top four finish.
In summery Charleroi had 2 defeats in the opening 19 rounds and they played good football then, but they finished the season with just 2 wins in their last 18 games.
