This Tuesday, it was the return of the Champions League, with the penultimate group stage matches on the program.
The opportunity to see Club Brugge receive a Juventus that is a priori superior on paper. Even if Thiago Motta had left some usual starters on the bench to start the match, the replacements were much more than second-rate players and all had the status of potential starters.
Return home
One of them would have his first start in the Champions League. After accumulating playing time in the last few weeks in the league, Samuel Mbangula had the opportunity to start against the Blauw in Zwart.
The chance for him to prove to the team that partly trained him that he has great qualities and that he can establish himself in one of the biggest European teams. A chance that the one who became Red Devil in November did not miss.
-“A different spirit drives him”
“He is making his debut as a starter in the Champions League against the team he grew up with. A different spirit drives him and we notice it, even if he does not succeed at everything”, writes Tuttomercatoweb about him .
It must be said that in the second half, he will be at the origin of Turin’s biggest chances. Replaced in the 66th minute by Yildiz, Motta wanted to try with two fresh wingers to take the Bruges defense by surprise. Neither Yildiz nor Conceição will have achieved what Mbangula had tried to do before them with just a little lack of success in the last gesture.
Hailed by the Italian press week after week, Mbangula is part of the young Belgian generation which proves that there is talent in the big European teams. If the next coach manages to bring together these talents and combine them with the experience of other players, Belgium has a bright future ahead of it.
