Tomorrow Club Brugge will play the classic in and against Anderlecht. Do you want to be fully informed about this match? Then refresh your knowledge with the Club Facts!
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Anderlecht - Club: the Club Facts
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THE MATCH
Tomorrow night the unadulterated topper between RSC Anderlecht and Club Brugge is on the program at the Lotto Park. Club and Anderlecht will then meet for the 180th time in the highest soccer league. In 90 away games against Anderlecht, Club won 11 times, drew 30 times and lost 49 times. In the last seven away games, Club lost only once (2W 4D). The national champion's biggest win over Anderlecht was a 0-3 victory in 1993.
The last six mutual confrontations ended in a draw each time. Last season, Club went 1-1 at Lotto Park through a goal by Mats Rits. At Jan Breydel, it was 2-2 after Bruges goals by Charles De Ketelaere and Hans Vanaken.
With Ferran Jutglà, Club has a pure marksman in its ranks (6 goals), only Hugo Cuypers (KAA Gent) and Vincent Janssen (Antwerp FC) do better with 7 goals. On top of that, Jutglà is also the best striker at Blauw-Zwart. Together with Kamal Sowah, he already gave the decisive pass three times. On the other side of the pitch, Simon Mignolet is an absolute star player between the posts, so it is not surprising that Mignolet did not miss a single league minute for Club.
Hans Vanaken already scored ten times against Anderlecht. Never before has a Club player scored so many times against their Brussels rival. Raoul Lambert scored nine times against the Capitals.
THE OPPONENT
So on the sixth away game of the season for Club Brugge, Anderlecht is the host. The Brusselers occupy ninth place in the standings after 11 matchdays. At home, Anderlecht reached 10/18 after victories against KV Oostende (2-0), RFC Seraing (3-1) and KV Kortrijk (4-1) and a draw against OH Leuven (2-2). Both KAA Gent and Sporting Charleroi went on to win 0-1 in the capital.
Like Club, Anderlecht is also active in Europe. Purple-White plays its matches in the UEFA Conference League after being a size too strong for Paide Linnameeseskond (Estonia) and BSC Young Boys (Switzerland) in the preliminary rounds. In the group stage, it dropped to third place last match day after a second consecutive defeat against England's West Ham. FSCB (Romania) and Silkeborg IF (Denmark) are also in the pool.
With Felice Mazzu, Anderlecht brought in an experienced replacement for Vincent Kompany, who left for Burnley, last summer. Felice Mazzu was previously active at three other Belgian clubs: Sporting Charleroi, KRC Genk and Union SG.
And not only for their coach did Anderlecht have to enter the market. After outgoing transfers of Sergio Gómez (Manchester City), Joshua Zirkzee (end of rental period, Bayern Munich and now to Bologna FC), Christian Kouamé (end of rental period, back with AFC Fiorentina) and Josh Cullen (Burnley FC), among others, Anderlecht brought the following players to Belgium:
Defenders: Jan Vertonghen (Bel - SL Benfica) and Moussa N'Diaye (Sen - FC Barcelona)
Midfielders: Amadou Diawara (Gui - AS Roma), Ishaq Abdulrazak (Nga - Norrköping), Nilson Angulo (Ecu - Quito) and Adrien Trebel (Fra - back from Lausanna-Sport)
Attackers: Fábio Silva (Por - rented from Wolves) and Sebastiano Esposito (Ita - rented from Internazionale)
MULTIPLE
Hans Vanaken could play his 270th league match for Blauw-Zwart tomorrow. This would put him in the top 15 of all time at Club. Kamal Sowah can play his 20th league match for Club Brugge. Our Colombian Éder Balanta already made 74 appearances for Club, so he can play match number 75 tomorrow.
Cyle Larin and Raphael Onyedika are facing their tenth match at Club Brugge, while Tajon Buchanan can start his 20th match for Club tomorrow.
THE REFEREE
Lawrence Visser is expected to take charge of the topper on matchday 12. He is supported by linesmen Rien Vanyzere and Thibaud Nijssen and fourth official Brent Staessens.
The VAR on duty is Nathan Verboomen, along with assistants Ella De Vries and Glenn Claes.
Visser whistled five previous duels between Club and Anderlecht. In those, it ended in a draw three times, a win once and Club lost once. In total, the ref has already whistled 35 Club Brugge official matches. This season, Lawrence Visser already refereed the Bruges city derby, where Club Brugge won 4-0 over Cercle Brugge.