Club - Mechelen: The Club Facts

The very first league match is a home game against KV Mechelen! Discover all about this match and the opponent below.

Ticket sale

Do you want to miss nothing of our very first league match? Hurry and buy a ticket via tickets.clubbrugge.be to secure an available seat at Jan Breydel!.

The match

In the past five seasons, Club started at home four times in the league. During those games, Club managed to secure victories against KRC Genk (2022, 3-2) and KAS Eupen (2018, 5-2), played a draw against KAS Eupen (2021, 2-2), and suffered a defeat against Sporting Charleroi (2020, 0-1).

Out of the last 75 seasons, Blauw-Zwart has emerged as the team with the most wins in their opening league match, having achieved 45 victories. Club will face Mechelen for the third time on the first matchday, having won on the previous two occasions.

FCB and the Maneblussers will meet each other for the 117th time on Sunday. Out of the previous 58 home matches, Club secured victory 41 times (most recently 2-0 on 01/10/2022), drew 9 times (last draw 2-2 on 31/10/2020), and suffered 8 defeats (last one being 0-1 on 21/01/2012).

The opponent

Mechelen will start its 75th season in the top division on Sunday. Steven Defour has been at the helm since October 2022 and guided the team to a 13th place finish last season.

During the summer, several players left Malinwa, including Alessio Da Cruz, Lucas Bijker, and Birger Verstraete. The team strengthened itself with six players, including Daam Foulon, Mory Konaté, and William Togui.

KV Mechelen played four preparation matches and won each one. They faced Overijse (5-0 victory), Boom (3-0 victory), SK Beveren (3-0 victory), and Maccabi Netanya (3-2 victory). Like Club Brugge, Defour's team also had one official match, competing with Royal Antwerp FC for the Supercup.

With KV Mechelen, some familiar faces return to Jan Breydel: Nikola Storm, Julien Ngoy, Jordi Vanlerberghe, and Boli Bolingoli.

Milestones

- Double celebration for Brandon Mechele: he can play his 375th match for Club Brugge. He can also complete his 300th match in the First Division (282 for Club and 18 with STVV).

- Mats Rits can play his 150th league match for Blauw-Zwart.

- For Antonio Nusa, it could be his 30th match in the Jupiler Pro League.

 - Hans Vanaken can play his 375th match in the First Division (299 for Club and 76 for Sporting Lokeren).

The referee

Bert Put will be the referee for this clash, assisted by linesmen Kevin Monteny and Lennert Becquet. The fourth official is Brent Staessens. In Tubeke, Nathan Verboomen, along with Matthias Massa and Christophe Snoeck, will take on the role of VAR.

Put will be officiating a Club Brugge official match for the sixth time and a Malinwa match for the thirteenth time.