Oguchi Onyewu and Standard Liège took a tentative place atop the Jupiler League table with a 5-1 blasting of Wallonian rivals Charleroi on Friday night.

The US star worked his usual 90 minutes in the heart of defense.

Standard carved out several early looks at goal, but would have trouble hitting the target until the visitors offered up the easiest chance available. Midway through the period, Abdelmajid Oulmers handled a cross in the area and Axel Witsel stepped up to bag the ensuing penalty kick.

Only four minutes later, Marco Ingrao played Igor De Camargo between two defenders in the right channel and the striker made no mistake, slotting inside the far post.

In the 36th minute, Marcos Camozzato capitalized on some Charleroi sloppiness to fire in a long drive that away keeper Bertrand Laquait could only get a finger to as it flew into his net.

Moments after halftime, Standard kept their roll going as Milan Jovanovic volleyed home his first goal since September 2nd.

De Camargo grabbed his second in the 56th minute by pouncing on an Marco Ingrao rebound that Laquait failed to hold.

Charleroi pulled back a single consolation goal nine minutes later as squeezed home a corner kick header for his first Jupiler League strike.

Standard get back to work on Saturday at FC Dender.

Scoring
SL - Axel Witsel 4 (PK) 23'
SL - Igor De Camargo 6 (Marcos Ingrao) 27'
SL - Marcos Camozzato 1 36'
SL - Milan Jovanovic 8 (Marcos Ingrao) 48'
SL - Igor De Camargo 7 56'
CHA - Geoffrey Mujangi Bia 1 65'

Line-ups
SL - Rorys Aragon Espinoza; Fred, Oguchi Onyewu, Marcos Camozzato, Marouane Fellaini, Grégory Dufer (Frédéric Dupré 87'), Marco Ingrao, Steven Defour (Salim Toama 67'), Axel Witsel, Milan Jovanovic, Igor De Camargo (Dieumerci Mbokani 77')

CHA - Bertrand Laquait; Badou, Salaheddine Sbai, Sébastien Van Aerschot, Fabien Camus (Brice Jovial 46'), Christian Leiva, Geoffrey Mujangi Bia, Abdelmajid Oulmers (Grégory Christ 79'), Tim Smolders, Orlando (Damien Micelli 59'), Mahamadou Habibou