Tomorrow is the return game of the Conference League semifinal against Fiorentina. Jan Breydel is already preparing for a grand evening. The ideal preparation? The Club Facts, of course!
The match
Six days after the outward match in Florence, where the Italians won 3-2, the return match will take place at Jan Breydel. It will already be the 60th match of the season for Blauw-Zwart. Because of the Holy Blood Procession in Bruges on Thursday, the match was scheduled one day earlier. To avoid the Champions League match on Wednesday evening, this game has to be kicked off at 18h45.
Last week, Vanaken with a penalty kick and Thiago with a clever goal ensured that everything is still possible at Olympia. The stadium is sold out and we call on all fans to color our Fort Blue-Black early before kickoff!
At home, in the last ten meetings with an Italian team, Club achieved three wins, two draws and five defeats. The last victory was 45 years ago.
It happened thirty times in Club Brugge's European history that, in a double duel with direct elimination, it lost the outward match on the move. Exactly 15 times (50%) Club was able to rectify that at home and just as many times Club was eliminated. 17 times Club lost the outward game with 1 goal difference and 10 times (59%) Club advanced to the next round.
Wednesday is a special day for another reason, because it will be sixteen years to the day since we said goodbye to François Sterchele. The Liège striker always celebrated his goals with the gesture that his idol Luca Toni always did when he scored. Italian striker Toni played 3 seasons at Fiorentina (2005-2007 and 2012-2013). The 23rd minute will undoubtedly be even louder.
If Club can rectify the lopsided situation at home, it will reach a European final for only the third time in its history. The previous two times were under Ernst Happel in 1976 (UEFA Cup) and 1978 (European Cup I).
Igor Thiago has already scored 29 goals, while Andreas Skov Olsen scored his 24th goal of the season at Antwerp. It has been since the 2001-02 season that Club Brugge had two players who scored 20 or more goals in one season. Back then, they were Rune Lange (27) and Andrés Mendoza (22). The Bruges pair are also Bruges' top shooters on the European stage with seven goals each.
Who will not be there is Raphael Onyedika. The Nigerian is serving a suspension following a red card in Florence. Bjorn Meijer fell out injured at Antwerp on Sunday, his season is over.
