Cercle - Club: The Club Facts

On Monday, the Champions' Play-Offs for Blauw-Zwart get underway. We start with a neighboring game against Cercle Brugge. Read all Club Facts below and get fully prepared for the match!

The Match

After the international break, it is not only time for league soccer, a new phase is starting: the Champions' Play-Offs. Of the 14 editions of Play-Off 1, Club Brugge is the only team that has been there each time.

Of the 118 games Club Brugge have already played in Play-Off 1, they won 56 times, drew 25 times and suffered 37 defeats. FCB is the team with the most points across all editions (193), outperforming Anderlecht (177 points). Blauw-Zwart already scored 197 times in a match in Play-Off 1, making it the team that found its way to goal most often in the final competition.

On Monday, Club and Cercle will face each other for the ^157th time, but it is the first time in the battle for Play-Off 1. The 78 previous away derbies yielded 43 wins, 17 draws and 18 defeats.

Hans Vanaken scored the most often for FCB in Play-Off 1 (21 times) and also sprinkled the most often with assists (13 pieces).

With Miron Musclic (41.5 years old) and Nicky Hayen (43.6 years old), the youngest coaches in PO1 face each other this season.

The yellow card counter is reset before the start of the Play-Offs, but after 3 yellow cards a player now faces a suspension.

Previous encounter

The opponent

Cercle Brugge is participating in the playoffs for the title for the first time. They are thus the thirteenth club against whom Blauw-Zwart has faced in the history of the playoffs.

Cercle Brugge finished the regular competition in ^5th place. That is their highest position since the 2007-08 season. Then they finished ^4th.

In their last 4 home games against Club, Cercle was able to score each time. With Kévin Denkey, our opponent on Monday therefore has the league's top shooter in their ranks (23 goals). Alin Minda is the assist king with 6.

In the last 2 away derbies Club could not win against Cercle and each time the match ended in a draw. In the most recent derby, Alan Minda brought green-black alongside, but Ferran Jutglà provided the blue-black equalizer.

Milestones

• Antonio Nusa can play his 70th game for Club Brugge. It could also be his 50th league match at Blue-Black.
• Joel Ordóñez can be in action for the 20th time at Club. Furthermore, he can play his 10th league match for Club.
• Philip Zinckernagel can play his 25th league match for Club.
• Casper Nielsen can play his 100th match in the Jupiler Pro League! He has so far played 39 matches for Union and 60 for Club Brugge.

The referee

Erik Lambrechts is the referee for the match against Cercle. He is assisted by linesmen Jo De Weirdt and Rien Vanyzere and fourth official Simon Bourdeaud'hui.

The VAR on duty will be Bert Put. He is assisted by Romain Devillers and Jasper Vitse.

Lambrechts has whistled a Blauw-Zwart match 37 times before. Of those, it was 14 away games, ending in 7 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats. Earlier this season, he was in charge during Club - Cercle and Club - Anderlecht.