Tomorrow night we kick off our new Champions League story. At the Jan Breydelstadion, we will face German Borussia Dortmund again for the first time since 2020. Find out all the facts about the past confrontations below.
Playday 1 in the renewed Champions League is immediately a topper. We start the League Phase with a home game against Dortmund. The black-and-yellow Germans finished fifth in the Bundesliga last season and played the Champions League final, which it lost to Real Madrid. This season, Die Borussen are in second place with 7 out of 9, behind Vincent Kompany's Bayern Munich.
The match
Club begins its 11th Champions League campaign (since reforming in 1992) Wednesday night at 9 p.m. The seventh in the last nine seasons. The most recent of these took place in the 2022/23 season, a club record of five consecutive participations and a memorable achievement as Club finished second in Group B, behind Porto, with 11 points and reached the knockout stage for the first time. However, Benfica was too strong in the eighth finals (0-2 in Bruges, 5-1 in Lisbon).
Wednesday night will be the ninth confrontation between Dortmund and Club. The previous duels ended in Club's favor twice, once we balanced each other and five times Dortmund drew the longest. Four years after the last confrontation, we host Dortmund again at Jan Breydel.
Dortmund and Club Brugge had some players with a shared club history: Ivan Perisic and Thomas Meunier were active for both teams. Michel Preud'homme also has a past as (assistant) trainer at both clubs.
Some players will also encounter former acquaintances. For example, Simon Mignolet and Emre Can spent four years together at Liverpool and Hugo Siquet and Nico Schlotterbeck know each other from Freiburg. Ardon Jashari will also meet a familiar face from Switzerland's national team with Gregor Kobel.
The opponent
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund (Borussia Dortmund or BVB for short) is our first opponent in the revamped Champions League. Founded on Dec. 19, 1909, the club has its home ground at Signal Iduna Park, the largest stadium in Germany and one of the largest in Europe. The club is also known for its fanatical supporters. Die Gelbe Wand takes on an imposing display behind the goal.
Dortmund is eight-time national champion of Germany, was the first German club to win a European Cup (European Cup II in 1966) and won the Champions League in the 1996/97 season. With Schalke 04(Revierderby) and Bayern Munich(Der Klassiker), they also have two rivalries in the Bundesliga, Germany's highest soccer league.
Dortmund has not faced a Belgian opponent since the 2020 games against Club Brugge. BVB have won their last four games in Belgium after losing their first three in our country. In each of those victories, the Borussen kept the zero; in contrast, they scored only one goal and conceded eight in the three defeats.
Dortmund is playing in the Champions League for the 19th time overall, and for the ninth consecutive season. In each, other than two of their last 11 campaigns, they have reached the knockout stage.
In the 2023/24 season, Edin Terzić's team finished first in Group F, ahead of Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Newcastle. They then beat PSV Eindhoven and Atlético de Madrid to qualify for a meeting with Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals. BVB won both home and away 1-0 to reach their third Champions League final, but Real Madrid was too strong at Wembley, winning 2-0.
There is also a fresh wind blowing through Dortmund. Ex-player and Turkish international Nuri Sahin is the new coach and it saw club icons Marco Reus (LA Galaxy) and Mats Hummels (AS Roma) leave.
Milestones
Tomorrow night Brandon Mechele, along with Hans Vanaken, will begin his seventh (!) UCL campaign for Club. Mignolet begins his sixth Champions League campaign. Our goalie played in 31 matches, 25 of them for Club, as did Mechele. Vanaken is the absolute record holder with 38 matches at the Champions League. With 9 goals, he is also Club's top shooter in the Champions League.
The referee
Tomorrow night's referee is not an unknown. Bosnian Irfan Peljto was also designated in September 2022 for the match Club - Bayer Leverkusen which we won 1-0. Peltjo will be assisted by assistants Senad Ibrišimbegović and Davor Beljo. The fourth official is Miloš Gigovic. Finally, the VAR is the Polish duo Tomasz Kwiatkowski and Piotr Lasyk.
Irfan Peljto has been affiliated as a referee with FIFA and UEFA since 2015. His first match was the UCL preliminary round match between La Fiorita and FC Vaduz. His first international followed in 2019 between Belgium and Kazakhstan, which was won 3-0 by the Belgians.