STVV - Club: the Club Facts

The last game of the regular competition brings us to Stayen, where Club takes on Sint-Truiden. Club is already certain of the Champions' Playoffs, but would like to confirm after qualifying for the quarter-finals in the Conference League. Read all about the match with the Club Facts!

The match

It is not only the last match of the regular league, but also the last match before the international break. Club wants to end a good week with three points, but on the artificial turf of Stayen that is no easy task.

This week Club qualified against OHL for the 14th time Champions' Play-offs / Play-Off I - Club is the only team that already managed to qualify for each edition. Moreover, it also reached a European quarterfinal for the first time in nine years by rectifying the lopsided situation against Molde on Thursday (3-0 win).

Sunday Club plays its 48th game of the season, in which it already managed to score 110 times. The win against Molde was also the 14th win by at least three goals difference. A big part in those goals have Skov Olsen and Igor Thiago. Our Danish winger was decisive on Thursday with 2 goals, and has already scored 22 across all competitions this season. Igor Thiago is Club's top shooter in the league with 16 goals.

STVV and Club face each other Sunday afternoon for the 92nd time at the highest level. Of the 45 previous trips to South Limburg, Club returned 16 times with three points (last time 1-2 on 30/10/2021. 15 times it was a draw (last time 1-1 on 19/01/2023) and 14 times it suffered a defeat (last time 2-1 on 24/07/2015). Club is thus already seven away games in a row unbeaten at Stayen.

Last season it was 1-1 in Limburg, when Gianni Bruno managed to erase an owngoal by his team. Earlier this season, Sint-Truiden also managed to hold Club to 1-1 at Jan Breydel. Skov Olsen gave us the lead, but an extremely efficient STVV dragged out another point through season revelation Koita.

Assist king Maxim De Cuyper (7 assists) is suspended for one more game. Coach Ronny Deila cannot count on Denis Odoi, who celebrated his First Division debut for STVV in 2009, either. He received his 5th yellow card against OHL.

Who will be there is Hans Vanaken. Our captain scored his 125th goal for Club Brugge against OHL. It was his 10th goal for Club this season. In each of his 9 seasons at Blauw-Zwart, he has been at least in the double digits in terms of goals scored.

The opponent

On Sunday, Club and STVV will play each other for the last time this season. The match was brought forward 5 hours to 1:30 p.m. because both STVV (PO2) and Club (PO1) already know their destination after the regular competition.

The Truienaren were long in the race for a ticket to the Champions' Playoffs after an excellent season, but defeats against Antwerp and Eupen forced the Canaries to drop out of the top six in recent weeks.

Striking: in the last 73 duels between them, STVV could only keep the score zero once against Club, when it ended 0-0 in 2010. The goalkeeper who kept his nets clean against Blauw-Zwart ... is now himself under the Bruges crossbar and goes by the name Simon Mignolet.

Matt Smets (2610 minutes) and Mathias Delorge (2571 minutes) are the only 2 players, born in 2004 or later, in Europe's top 10 leagues who played more than 2500 minutes. Along with Pálsson (Eupen) and Pletinckx (OHL), Smets is the only field player who has not missed a minute this season. Only Brandon Mechele (2591 minutes) comes close to the trio. It will also be a happy reunion for our star keeper at the back, who was loaned to the yellow shirts for six months in 2017.

Top shooter for STVV is not surprisingly Aboubakary Koita. The Mauritanian who recently spent time at the Africa Cup already sits at thirteen league goals. Jarne Steuckers has the most assists with six.

Coach Thorsten Fink (56) gets twice as many points (25) with STVV at his own Stayen than on the road (12). The strong home reputation earned them 25/42, with victories against Standard, Mechelen, Westerlo and KAA Gent, among others. Genk and Antwerp, among others, also failed to win at Stayen. Only Anderlecht (0-1), Cercle (0-2) and Union (0-4) took the full spoils there this season.

If STVV does not lose Sunday, they will match their 2nd best points total of this century. Only in 2018-19 did STVV do even better (47 points), but then STVV fell 2 points short of a second participation in PO1 (after 2009-10).

Milestones

• Ferran Jutglà and Casper Nielsen can play their 60th league game for Club Brugge.
• For Philip Zinckernagel, it could be the 25th JPL match for Blauw-Zwart.

The referee

Kevin Van Damme was appointed ref for our final match of the regular season. He will be assisted by linesmen Tom Vanpoucke and Lennert Jans. The fourth official is Klass Clerckx. Wim Smet takes his place as VAR, with Koen Thijs and Bert Verbeke as assistants.

It is the tenth time the 33-year-old ref will lead an official Club match. The 5 previous away matches of those ended in 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. Earlier this season, he led Club's away match at KV Kortrijk (1-0).

As for Sint-Truiden, Van Damme was in charge of the match 17 times before. 9 times of those were home matches of the Canaries. These ended in 5 wins and 4 defeats.

This season he managed STVV's home match against Union (0-4) and the away matches at Cercle Brugge (3-1) and R. Antwerp FC (3-0). It is the first time he will lead a mutual duel between the two teams.