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Club Brugge – Bodø/Glimt: Club Facts

UEFA Conference League

On Thursday, the final group match of the UEFA Conference League is scheduled. A direct duel between first and second in the standings with the stake of winning the group! Prepare perfectly for this match with the Club Facts!

The game

For FCB it is the 355th European match, for the Norwegians the 73rd. It is already the 45th time in history that a Belgian team and a Norwegian team are competing in Europe.

Bodø/Glimt is Club's 11th Norwegian opponent. The previous 4 home games against a Norwegian team ended in 3 wins and 1 defeat. For Bodø/Glimt it will be the first time they play a European match on Belgian soil.

In the outward game, Club went on to win 0-1 at the Asympra Stadion after a goal by Hans Vanaken. Former Glimt player Philip Zinckernagel provided the assist.

Club has been certain since matchday 4 that it will winter in Europe for the 18th time. And on its own field, it has a strong record: FCB has not lost at Jan Breydel since the start of the season.

Simon Mignolet already kept the 0 in 7 consecutive official duels. Only twice in history Club managed to finish more consecutive games without a goal against: 10 between 11/03/1990 and 12/05/1990 and 9 between 05/02/1994 and 10/04/1994. This was each time with Dany Verlinden in goal.

Hans Vanaken is our top shooter in Europe this season. With 4 goals he is therefore in the top three of the overall top shooters classification of the European competition.

Only 7 teams are still unbeaten in the Conference League group phase: apart from Club Brugge, these are KAA Gent, FC Viktoria Plzeň (Cze), LOSC Lille (Fra), ACF Fiorentina (Ita), Ferencvárosi TC (Hun) and PAOK FC (Gre).

The group winner gets to go directly to the 1/8th final of the Conference League and take on a winner of the playoff round. The runner-up must first play an intermediate round to get into the 1/8th final. The team must face a UEFA Europa League dropout.

The opponent

Although Bodø/Glimt started the group stage with a 1 out of 6, it recovered by winning the last three games. Thus, on matchday 5, the Norwegians managed to secure European soccer after the New Year.

For FK Bodø/Glimt, the match against Club Brugge is their last of the year. In December, the Norwegians crowned themselves champions in the Eliteserien and took on Molde FK in the cup final. Bodø failed to grab the double, as it lost the cup final by the narrowest of margins.

Amahl Pellegrino had a foot in 38 goals in the Eliteserien: with 24 goals he finished the season as the top shooter and with 14 assists he often put a teammate on his way to goal.

Milestones

  • Andreas Skov Olsen can play his 75th game for Club Brugge.
  • Bjorn Meijer may be in action for Club for the 60th time.
  • Dedryck Boyata is awaiting his 25th match for Club.
  • Brandon Mechele can play his 70th European match for Club. Only 4 players played more European matches than the Bredener: Gert Verheyen (88), Timmy Simons (80), Dany Verlinden and Franky Van Der Elst (both 78).
  • Simon Mignolet can also play the 70th European match of his career. He played 25 for Liverpool FC and 44 for Club Brugge.
  • For Éder Balanta, it could be his 25th European match for Blauw-Zwart.

The referee

Greek Anastasios Papapetrou was appointed referee for this game and will be assisted by linesmen Tryfon Petropoulos and Iordanis Aptosoglou, fourth official Andreas Gamaris and VAR Angelos Evangelou, assisted by Evangelos Manouchos.

Papapetrou is whistling a Club match for the first time, but has already conducted matches of RSC Anderlecht, KAA Gent and the Red Devils. He has been whistling at the highest level domestically for 10 years and at the international level since 2016. It is the 9th European match in Club Brugge's history led by a Greek referee.