Oguchi Onyewu and Standard Liège failed to win for the first time this season, but a 1-1 Sunday draw at Gent was enough to leave them with a two-point cushion atop the Jupiler League table.

The burly American worked his usual 90 minutes in the heart of defense for the Belgian pacesetters.

The first half was filled with nothing more than half chances until Igor De Camargo applied a confident header to Axel Witsel's cross from the left two minutes before the break.

Onyewu would have had a fine chance to double the lead just after intermission had he been able to control Steven Defour's free kick serve in the area.

Gent began to tilt the field and finally had a deserved equalizer from debutant Bernd Thijs with 21 minutes to go. Dominic Foley settled a Massimo Moia cross before laying off to the Belgian veteran, who slammed a low drive home through a sea of legs.

The hosts were nearly gifted a winner seven minutes later, with Costa Bonfim Dante nudging a Christophe Gregoire centering ball just wide of his own net.

Standard now tackle UEFA Cup foe Zenit St. Petersburg in the away leg Thursday before returning home to face Westerlo in league play on Sunday.

Scoring
SL - Igor De Camargo 3 (Axel Witsel) 43'
AAG - Bernd Thijs 1 (Dominic Foley) 69'

Line-ups
SL - Olivier Renard; Marcos Camozzato, Costa Santos Bonfim Dante, Oguchi Onyewu, Mohamed Sarr, Christophe Grondin, Steven Defour, Grégory Dufer (Landry Mulemo 72'), Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel, Igor De Camargo (Dieumerci Mbokani 74'), Milan Jovanovic

ON THE SIDELINE
Greg Dalby was not in uniform as Charleroi fell 1-0 at Germinal Beerschot.