After our impressive win over Anderlecht last Sunday, our home match in the UEFA Conference League against PAOK Saloniki awaits us tomorrow night. This duel marks the fifteenth European clash for the Club this season and promises to be exciting, as both teams aspire to a coveted spot in the semifinals in this duel. Find out all about the match and the opponent in the Club Facts!
THE MATCH
Tomorrow night Club will once again enter the stage for a European quarterfinal after nine seasons. Blue-Black reached this stage of the UEFA Conference League by finishing as group winner in a competitive pool with FK Bodø/Glimt of Norway, Beşiktaş JK of Turkey and FC Lugano of Switzerland. In the sixteenth round, Club managed to eliminate Norway's Molde FK before being paired with Greek club PAOK Saloniki in the draw.
Club and PAOK meet for the second time in a European context. In the UEFA Europa League group stage both teams already crossed swords once in the 2010-11 season. Both home and away, the confrontation ended in a 1-1 draw. At Jan Breydel, Dorge Kouemaha put Club ahead on a pass from Nabil Dirar. But 12 minutes before time, Stelios Malezas was able to equalize on a pass from Vieirinha. At PAOK's Toumbas stadium, it was also the home team that took the lead through a long-range effort from Vieirinha. But in the ultimate slot, Stefan Šćepović was able to head in the equalizer after a cross from Peter Van der Heyden.
Thanks in part to the results against PAOK, Club has so far maintained an unbeaten record in six European home matches against Greek teams. Furthermore, if Club manages to beat PAOK, it would mark the 150th win in the club's European history (149W 78D 130L).
In the past, two players have worn both Club's and PAOK's shirts. Dimitri M'Buyu from Belgium represented Blue-Black for just one season in 1989, while Michael Krmenčík from the Czech Republic also played one season at Club, in 2020.
Brandon Mechele, Maxim De Cuyper, Ferran Jutglà and Igor Thiago find themselves on edge with the risk of suspension; they will miss the return match upon receiving a yellow card. Before the start of the semifinals, however, all yellow cards will be reset. If Club reaches the semifinals it will play against the winner of the quarterfinal between FC Viktoria Plzeň (Cze) and ACF Fiorentina (Ita).
THE OPPONENT
PAOK Saloniki is Club's opponent in this European showdown. The abbreviation PAOK stands for Panthessalonikeios Athlitikos Omilos Konstantinoupoliton, which can be freely translated as the Pan-Thessalonian Sports Club of Constantinople. Currently, PAOK leads the league table in the Greek playoffs. In the past, the club has won three national championships, with the most recent title in 2019, and the National Cup eight times, the last win being in 2021.
This season, PAOK matched its own European record by reaching the quarterfinals, a feat it also achieved in 1973-74 (European Cup II) and in 2021-22 (UEFA Europa Conference League). Together with Olympiacos, they are the two Greek clubs representing the quarterfinals of the UEFA Conference League. Both teams will undoubtedly be extra motivated to advance to the final, as it will be played on home soil.
PAOK's current top shooter in Europe is 27-year-old Serbian Andrija Živković. The flank attacker already managed to score 6 times in the tournament. In addition, PAOK has a number of players in the selection with a Belgian past: William Troost-Ekong (30) played for KAA Gent in the 2016-17 season, Souahilo Meité (30) played 1.5 seasons for Zulte Waregem between 2016 and 2017, Giannis Konstantelias (21) was loaned to KAS Eupen in the 2020-21 season and Ally Samatta (31) played 6 seasons for KRC Genk (2016-2020 and 2022-23) and for Royal Antwerp FC (2021-22).
MILPALS
A number of Club players could reach a nice milestone in the away game against PAOK:
- Raphael Onyedika can play his 80th match for Club.
- Éder Balanta can play his 25th European match for Club.
- It could be Casper Nielsen's 20th European match.
- Philip Zinckernagel can play the 20th European match of his career. He played 10 matches for Club, 6 for Olympiacos and 3 for FK Bodø/Glimt.
THE REFEREE
German Daniel Siebert was designated ref for tomorrow night's match. The German linesmen for this match are Jan Seidel and Rafael Foltyn. In addition, Sven Jablonski will take the honors as fourth man. Of course, there will be a VAR available for this match. The VAR on duty is Marco Fritz assisted by Sören Storks.
The 39-year-old referee will lead a European match of Club Brugge for the third time already. In February 2019 he was the referee during the Europa League match against RB Salzburg (4-0) and in October of the same year he led the Champions League match in which PSG won 0-5 at Jan Breydel.
Siebert has been active at the highest level in Germany for 12 years. Since 2015, he has also been whistling matches at the international level. He is a UEFA elite ref (highest category) from Berlin. Meanwhile, the German ref has already accumulated quite a few highlights in his career. Among other things, he was a referee at the Euro 2020, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and last season's German Cup Final.