Club - Lugano: the Club Facts

Club Brugge hosts Lugano on Thursday on matchday 4 of the group stage in the UEFA Conference League. Provided a win, Club takes a firm option on wintering in Europe. If Club takes the three points, and Beşiktaş cannot win, Club is certain of European soccer after the New Year.

The match

Just two weeks ago Club travelled to Switzerland for the away game with Lugano, winning 1-3 after goals from Balanta, Skov Olsen and Vanaken. Shkelqim Vladi scored for the Swiss. On Thursday, Club hopes to repeat that at Jan Breydel, in what will already be the tenth European match of the season.

In total, Club will play its 353rd European match on Thursday. For Lugano, it is only the 38th European game. It is the 48th confrontation between a Belgian and Swiss club.

Skov Olsen and Hans Vanaken both scored against Lugano and are now the best shooters of the selection in Europe with four goals. De Cuyper, Zinckernagel, Vetlesen and Vanaken all handed out two assists in the UECL this season. Club already scored 22 goals in Europe this season. Only in the 2001-02 (30) and 2014-15 (29) seasons did Blue-Black score more often.

Blue-Black is still undefeated in the pool. Getting out of the group stage without a single defeat Club has only succeeded once before: in 2014 it did not lose in the Europa League group with Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland) and Torino (Italy). Moreover, this season it has been unbeaten in Europe for seven games in a row. Between 2013 and 2016, FCB was unbeaten for 16 consecutive games.

The opponent

FC Lugano is having a difficult season. After thirteen playing days they are sixth in the Raffeisen Super League with sixteen points. Saturday they lost 3-1 to Lausanne, the team that was knocked out of the cup by Lugano on November 1 (0-4).

In the Swiss league, Lugano has three club top shooters: Shkelqim Vladi, Yanis Cimignani and Zan Celar each scored three goals. Renato Steffen is the best declarer in the patriotic league with six assists.

Milestones

• Jorne Spileers and Igor Thiago can play European match number ten for Club. The latter can also finish his 25th European match of his career.
• Denis Odoi is facing his 30th European match. So far, he has played 9 for Anderlecht, 8 for Lokeren and 12 for Club Brugge.

The referee

Hungarian Tamás Bognár was appointed ref for the European game. The linesmen are Balázs Buzás and Péter Kóbor. The fourth ref is Marton Rúsz.

The referee will celebrate his 45th birthday next week. He has been whistling matches at the highest level in his own country since 2006. Three years later, he made his debut on the European stage.

Bognár, a ref of the first UEFA category (second level), did not yet referee a Club game, but has already refereed matches of Antwerp and Genk. For Club, it is the eighth match with a Hungarian match referee.