Club - KV Kortrijk: the Club Facts

On Friday, Club plays the West Flemish derby against KV Kortrijk. Read all Club Facts below!

THE MATCH

Unibet - Number 1 in responsible play (+18)

Club Brugge and KV Kortrijk will play each other in First Division for the 65th time. The 32 previous duels in Brugge ended in 25 wins (last time 1-0 on 21/11/2020) and 7 draws (last time 0-0 on 26/12/2012). If Club Brugge can win on Friday, it will be the tenth home win in a row against De Kerels, who have never been able to triumph at Jan Breydel.

If Club does not lose, it will be unbeaten for the 10th time in a row against KV Kortrijk. The previous 9 mutual duels ended in 7 wins and 2 draws. Last season, Club managed 2 narrow wins against KV Kortrijk. In the home match, Club won with the smallest difference thanks to a beautiful overhead kick by Noa Lang. At the Guldensporenstadion, Blauw-Zwart was able to turn a 1-0 deficit (Gano) into a win after goals from Eduard Sobol and Hans Vanaken.

During the preparation for the current season, KV Kortrijk was also a guest at the Belfius Basecamp for a practice match. A late goal by Nihad Mujakic gave the Kortrijkzans a win (0-1). If Vanaken, September's Player of the Month at Club Brugge, can score, he will match the record of Foeke Booy and Jan Ceulemans who were both able to score 7 times against KV Kortrijk.

Club Brugge is also the only team in this Jupiler Pro League season still unbeaten at home, but it had to concede a draw in 3 of the previous 5 home matches. Only against Beerschot (3-2) and KV Oostende (3-0) did it manage to win.

Top marksman Charles De Ketelaere (4 goals) also scored his first goal for the Red Devils during the international break in the UEFA Nations League match against Italy. Hans Vanaken played his 15th international for Belgium. Club Brugge's assist king Noa Lang also had a successful international break. He made his first appearance for Orange in Latvia and also added an assist and pre-assist in the international against Gibraltar.

Both Simon Mignolet of FCB and Marko Illc of the Veekaa could keep the zero for 4 times already. No other goalkeeper does better in the Jupiler Pro League. Noa Lang needs to avoid a yellow card to not have to miss the match at Antwerp suspended. At Antwerp, Birger Verstraete is on 1 card from suspension.

THE OPPONENT

The Guys made a successful season start with 15 out of 30. It has been since the 2013-2014 season that they had more points (16) after the first 10 playing days. To the club's frustration, coach Luka Elsner left KV Kortrijk last week to sign for Standard Liege. The Slovenian succeeded the sacked Mbaye Leye there.

This week, KV Kortrijk appointed old acquaintance Karim Belhocine as Elsner's successor. After ending his playing career in 2015, he joined KV Kortrijk. First as assisnt coach to Johan Walem, later as head coach. In 2017, Hein Vanhaezebrouck brought the French-Algerian coach with him to the Astridpark upon his appointment at Anderlecht. There, he was also later assistant to Fred Rutten. After the Dutchman's dismissal, he was allowed to sit out the 2018-2019 season as head coach of purple-white. In the summer of 2019, Sporting Charleroi appointed Belhocine as head coach. He guided the Zebras to a handsome third place finish in the season that was cut short by corona. Last season, Belhocine had a smashing start to the season, where he was on top for a long time after 7 wins in the first 10 matches. But the second half of the season was disappointing, resulting in Charleroi finishing only 13th and not renewing Belhocine's contract. So now Belhocine returns to the club where everything began for him.

KV Kortrijk scored 7 out of 15 on the road so far. It won at Antwerp (0-1) and STVV (0-2), played equal at Zulte Waregem (2-2), but lost at Union (2-0) and Oud-Heverlee Leuven (2-1). The Kerels could have been even higher than the 8th spot in the rankings, because on the last 2 match days against Essevee and Sporting Charleroi, it gave away a win in the final stages each time.

Last summer, the club said goodbye to Julien de Sart (KAA Gent), Teddy Chevalier (Excel Mouscron), Petar Golubovic and Jovan Stojanovic (end of contract). Also of the mercenaries Yevgen Makarenko , Zinho Gano, Adam Jakubech and Gaëtan Hendrickx had to say goodbye.

The club reinforced with these players, among others:

• midfielders: Kevin Vandendriessche (Fra) [KV Oostende], Mathias Fixelles [Union St.-Gillis], Abdelkahar Kadri [Paradou AC (Alg)], Viktor Torp (Den) [rented from Midrjylland (Den)].
• attackers: Marlos Moreno (Col) [rented from Man City (Eng)], Rachid Alioui (Mar) [rented from SCO Angers (Fra)], Dylan Mbayo [KAA Gent], Jesaja Herrmann (Ger) [Vfl Wolfsburg (Ger)].

Top shooter is striker Faïz Selemani, who already shook the nets 6 times, half of them from the spot. The trio of Ante Palaversa, Lucas Rougeaux and Faïz Selemani are assist kings. They have already set 2 goals for teammates.

Remarkably, of all the clubs in the Pro League, KV Kortrijk has the ball the least often. On average, it has the ball for only 42.6% of playing time. This while Club Brugge has possession of the ball on average 59.6% of games. Only KRC Genk (63.7%) does even better. In aerial duels, KVK does best of all. It wins an average of 21.3 aerial duels per match, compared to only 12.7 for Club.

No team scores more often from stationary phases than KV Kortrijk (8 times). 57.1% of their goals were scored that way. Club also scored 5 times from stationary phases, but percentage-wise that is only 27.8% of their goals. Only KRC Genk had more goals from the penalty spot (4) than KV Kortrijk (3). Only 2 clubs were allowed a penalty less than Club Brugge (1): Union and STVV did not get a penalty kick yet this season.

MECHELE

Brandon Mechele could be in action for the 290th time at Club Brugge.

Stanley Nsoki and Noah Mbamba can play their tenth game for Club. Noa Lang can then play his 40th game in the Jupiler Pro League again at Blauw-Zwart.

REFEREE

Bert Put was designated ref for this game. He is assisted by assistant referees Jeroen Walschap and Kevin Dhondt. Kevin Debeuckelaere is fourth official. The VAR is Wesli De Cremer, flanked by Ella De Vries and Istvan Lagaert.

Bert Put is leading an official match of Club Brugge for the third time. Last season he whistled Blauw-Zwart's 2 league matches against STVV (2x win). Put has already been the referee in 7 matches of KV Kortrijk. 6 of those were on location, which finished at 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat for the Guys.

OTHER MATCHES THIS MATCHDAY

Sat 16/10 16:15 R. Union St.-Gilloise - RFC Seraing
Sat 16/10 18:30 SV Zulte Waregem - R. Antwerp FC
Sat 16/10 18:30 KV Oostende - Cercle Brugge KSV
Sat 16/10 20:45 R. Standard de Liège - Oud-Heverlee Leuven
Sun 17/10 13:30 K. Sint-Truidense VV - RSC Anderlecht
Sun 17/10 16:00 K. Beerschot VA - YR KV Mechelen
Sun 17/10 18:30 Sp. du Pays de Charleroi - KRC Genk
Sun 17/10 21:00 KAA Gent - KAS Eupen