Away days, best days! Are you making the trip to Leuven? Then prepare perfectly for the match on the way with the Club Facts!
The Match
On Saturday, Club Brugge heads to Den Dreef for the Jupiler Pro League match against OH Leuven. Both teams face each other for the 17th time in the competition.
There was always a winner in the 8 previous duels Leuven. 5 times Club drew the longest, 3 times OH Leuven kept the three points at home. Of Blauw-Zwart's 6 last away matches in Leuven, Club lost only once: a 2-1 defeat in 2020.
Club won the 3 last away matches, the last 2 of which it kept the zero each time. Last season, Club achieved a 6 out of 6 against OHL. In Leuven, Club won with the smallest difference thanks to a world goal by Ferran Jutglà.
At Jan Breydel, Club had to chase after half an hour after a goal by Ewoud Pletinckx. Club looked for the dressing rooms at an equal score after an owngoal by the visiting goalkeeper. Tobe Leysen had to turn over 2 more times after halftime after goals by Hans Vanaken and Bjorn Meijer.
Ferran Jutglà thus delivered the verdict in Leuven last season. It was already his third goal against OHL. Only Noa Lang scored as many goals for Club against Leuven as the Spaniard.
Last Wednesday, Club beat Belisia Bilzen 6-1 in the Croky Cup. There were only smiling faces afterwards: Bjorn Meijer and Gustaf Nilsson celebrated their comeback with a goal. Jutglà, Romero and Skoras were also able to shake the nets for the first time this season. Club thus remains active on three levels this season and meets another Limburg opponent in the next round with K. Patro Eisden Maasmechelen.
Andreas Skov Olsen and Hans Vanaken are Club's top shooters with 4 goals.
Gustaf Nilsson delivered the most assists at Club (4). In his Belgian career he was already decisive 3 times against OHL (2 goals and 1 assist for Union).
Club Brugge already scored 65 times in 2024. With that, together with KV Mechelen, it is doing best in the Jupiler Pro League. In only 2 of its 32 league matches in this calendar year could Club not score.
Club is already unbeaten 4 away matches in a row (3W 1D). If it remains unbeaten against Leuven, it will manage to remain unbeaten for the first time since early 2022 (then 6) on at least 5 away matches in a row.
Club is the JPL team with the most shots (220) and ball keys (427) in the opponent's sixteen.
After the win against RSC Anderlecht, Club climbed to third place with 21 points, 7 less than leader KRC Genk and 2 less than Antwerp. The 2 frontrunners play each other this weekend.
The opponent
After 12 playing days, the Leuveners are 11th in the standings with 15 points. A win could put them on par with Ghent (5th place, 18 points). A defeat could at worst put them on par with Cercle Brugge (15th place).
It has been just under a year since Óscar Garcia took over as coach of Oud-Heverlee Leuven. Last season, the 51-year-old Spaniard was able to exempt OHL from the relegation playoffs on the last matchday by still jumping over Sporting Charleroi to 12th place. In the Europe Playoffs, he managed to climb even further to finish fourth out of 6 participants.
This season the club has known highs and lows. OHL remained unbeaten for the first 6 matchdays and was able to stunt in its home matches with a 3-1 win against KRC Genk and a 2-0 win over Standard. But after that, it could not win 5 matches in a row.This week OHL had an excellent week with a 0-2 away win at Sporting Charleroi in the league and a 2-0 home win against RFC Seraing in the Croky Cup.
Club Brugge is the black beast for the club from the student city. It lost 69% of its matches against Club in the Jupiler Pro League (3W 2D 11L), the highest loss percentage against all their opponents (with at least 10 duels played) in the Jupiler Pro League.
In the last 13 mutual duels, OHL could only win once against Club Brugge (2D 10L).
The club has 3 top shooters, each with 2 goals: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi, Youssef Maziz and Konan N'Dri. Ezechiel Banzuzi already set a teammate up for a goal 4 times.
Coach Garia cannot call on the injured Ewoud Pletinckx, Antef Tsoungui and Mathieu Maetens.
With Federico Ricca, Thibault Vlietinck, Birger Verstraete and Siebe Schrijvers, OHL has a lot of players with a Club past.
Along with Club's Simon Mignolet and Brandon Mechele, Tobe Leysen is one of 15 players who did not miss a minute this season in the Jupiler Pro League.
Milestones
- Ferran Jutglà can play his 110th official match for Club. He can also play his 80th league match at Blauw-Zwart.
- Maxim De Cuyper can play his 50th league match for Club.
- For Michal Skoras, it can be the 40th JPL match at Club.
- Kyriani Sabbe and Romeo Vermant can play respectively their 30th and 20th league match for Club.
- Gustaf Nilsson can play his 10th league match for Club. Together with the 65 matches for Union, he can play his 75th match in First Division.
- Hans Vanaken can play his 425th match in First Class (76 for Lokeren, 348 for Club).
The referee
Simon Bourdeaud'hui was designated ref for this game.
Michele Seeldraeyers and Bryan Bijnens are the linesmen, Arne De Beuckelaer is the fourth official. The VAR is Nicolas Laforge, assisted by Vito Di Vincenzo and Carlos-Manuel Serra Guerreiro Alho.
It is the first time the 28-year-old East Fleming will officiate a match in Club Brugge's Jupiler Pro League. However, last season he already whistled the cup game at Beerschot (0-6).
Of OHL, he already led 3 official matches. The home match from that series was lost.