Standard Liège blew a two-goal halftime lead at home and were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw with visiting Gent in the first leg of their Beker van Belgie semifinal tie on Tuesday night.

Oguchi Onyewu went the distance with an assist for Les Rouches, who stormed out of the gate and could have been up by more than 2-0 at the break, only to suffer a second half collapse capped in the dying minute by Costa Rica prodigy Bryan Ruiz.

After putting Gent under some heavy early pressure, Standard broke the ice on 18 minutes. Onyewu surged forward to deliver a deep cross that Igor De Camargo beat three defenders to for a header past Bojan Jorgacević.

The hosts went close twice in the next few moments, then Ruiz saw his curler batted away from the top corner by Standard keeper Rory Espinoza.

The Sclessin crew responded with a display of class on the next rush, Dieumerci Mbokani wiggling past two Gent players to best the keeper and double the lead.

Onyewu nearly made it three a minute later from a scramble in front of the away net, but Jorgacević was in the right place to catch the American's sharp angle half-volley.

Standard continued to buzz Gent's half in the opening phase of the second half, with several shots missing the frame.

In the 69th minute, Gent cut the home advantage when a screened Espinoza allowed Randall Azofeifa's free kick into his net.

After another pair of squandered Standard chances, Gent hit a smash 'n' grab equalizer with mere seconds remaining in regulation. Admir Hazanadar got loose on the counter to serve over Espinoza for an easy Ruiz header.

The teams will reunite at Gent on April 15th for the thrilling conclusion, but Standard must now turn their attention to a Sunday league visit from Mons.

Scoring
SL - Igor De Camargo 1 (Oguchi Onyewu) 18'
SL - Dieumerci Mbokani 3 (Landry Mulemo) 34'
KAAG - Randall Azofeifa 1 69'
KAAG - Bryan Ruiz 2 (Admir Hazanadar) 89'

Line-ups
SL - Rorys Aragon Espinoza; Marcos Camozzato, Oguchi Onyewu, Mohamed Sarr, Dante Costa, Marouane Fellaini, Landry Mulemo, Réginal Goreux (Sirimana Dembele 78'), Axel Witsel, Igor De Camargo (Milan Jovanović 76'), Dieumerci Mbokani

KAAG - Bojan Jorgacević; Jonas De Roeck, Massimo Moia (Aleksandar Mutavdžić 76'), Roberto Rosales, Marko Suler, Randall Azofeifa, Christophe  Grondin (Khalilou Fadiga 46'), Bryan Ruiz, Bernd Thijs, Dominic Foley, Gil Vermouth (Admir Hazanadar 66')