Away days, best days! Are you making the trip to Leuven? Then prepare perfectly for the competition with the Club Facts along the way!
The match
On Saturday, Club Brugge travels to Den Dreef for the Jupiler Pro League match against OH Leuven. Both teams look into each other’s eyes for the 17th time in the competition.
There was always a winner in the 8 previous matches in Leuven. Club came out on top 5 times, OH Leuven kept the three points at home 3 times. Club lost only once of Blauw-Zwart’s last 6 away matches in Leuven: a 2-1 defeat in 2020.
Club won its last three away matches, of which it kept a clean sheet the last two times. Last season, Club achieved a 6 out of 6 against OHL. In Leuven, Club won by the smallest margin thanks to a world-class goal from Ferran Jutglà.
Club had to chase Jan Breydel after half an hour after a goal by Ewoud Pletinckx. Club went to the changing rooms when the score was level after an own goal by the visiting goalkeeper. Tobe Leysen had to turn around twice after halftime after goals from Hans Vanaken and Bjorn Meijer.
Ferran Jutglà 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 net for the first time this season. Club will remain active at three levels this season and will meet another Limburg opponent in the next round with K. Patro Eisden Maasmechelen.
Andreas Skov Olsen and Hans Vanaken are Club’s top scorers with 4 goals.
Gustaf Nilsson provided 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 has already scored 65 times in 2024. This makes it, together with KV Mechelen, the best in the Jupiler Pro League. Club was unable to score in only 2 of its 32 league matches this calendar year.
Club has been undefeated for 4 away matches in a row (3W 1D). If it remains undefeated against Leuven, it will be possible to remain undefeated in at least 5 away matches in a row for the first time since the beginning of 2022 (then 6).
Club is the JPL team with the most shots (220) and ball touches (427) in the opponent’s box.
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 two leaders play against each other this weekend.
The opponent
After 12 match days, the Leuven team is in eleventh place in the rankings with 15 points. A win could bring them level with Ghent (5th place, 18 points). At worst, a defeat could bring them level with Cercle Brugge (15th place).
It has been just under a year since Óscar Garcia took over as coach of Oud-Heverlee Leuven. The 51-year-old Spaniard was able to exempt OHL from the relegation play-offs on the last matchday last season by jumping over Sporting Charleroi to 12th place. In the Europe Play-offs he managed to climb even further to finish fourth of the 6 participants.
This season the club has experienced highs and lows. OHL remained undefeated in the first 6 matchdays and was able to perform in its home matches with a 3-1 win against KRC Genk and a 2-0 win over Standard. But after that they couldn’t win 5 matches in a row.
This week OHL had an excellent week with a 0-2 away win at Sporting Charleroi in the competition 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 matches played) in the Jupiler Pro League.
In the last 13 mutual matches, OHL could only win once against Club Brugge (2D 10L).
The club has 3 top scorers, each with 2 goals: Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi, Youssef Maziz and Konan N’Dri. Ezekiel Banzuzi has 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 many players with a Club history.
Together with Club’s Simon Mignolet and Brandon Mechele, Tobe Leysen is one of the 15 players who have not missed 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 competition match for Blauw-Zwart.
- Maxim De Cuyper can play his 50th competition match for Club.
- For Michal Skoras it could be the 40th JPL match at Club.
- Kyriani Sabbe and Romeo Vermant can respectively play their 30th and 20th competition 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 the First Division.
- Hans Vanaken can play his 425th match in the First Division (76 for Lokeren, 348 for Club).
The referee
Simon Bourdeaud’hui was appointed as ref for this match.
Michele Seeldraeyers and Bryan Bijnens are the line judges, 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 that the 28-year-old East Flemish will lead a match in the Jupiler Pro League of Club Brugge. He did referee the cup match at Beerschot (0-6) last season.
He has already led 3 official matches at OHL. The home match of that series was lost.
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