1. Who are they?
Club Brugge K.V. play in the medieval city of Bruges which is in the north east of Belgium near the border with The Netherlands. They were formed in 1890 and have won the Belgian first division thirteen times, most recently in 2005.
2. What is their stadium called?
The Jan Breydal Stadium; capacity 29042. They share it with Cercle Brugge KSV.
3. When are we playing them?
Home Leg: Thursday 3rd November 2011
KO 20.05
4. How did they reach the group stage?
In the second qualifying round they beat FK Qarabag of Azerbaijan 4-2 on aggregate. In the third round they got past Georgian side Zestafoni 5-3.
5. How are they doing this season?
They are currently 4th in the Belgian first division seven points behind league leaders Anderlecht. They have dropped too many points since our trip to Belgium, resulting in the sacking of their manager! They’re also behind their ground-colleagues, Cercle Brugge KSV, by a solitary point. Their next league match could prove critical as it’s away to Standard Liege…three points behind.
6. Who is their captain?
Carl Hoefkens who used to play for West Brom.
7. Who is their manager?
They were managed by Adrie Koster from The Netherlands until October 30th, when he was sacked following four straight defeats in all competitions. Phillippe Clement is their caretaker manager, he said this about the forthcoming Europa match: “This is a transitional period. We ask for understanding.” (source)
8. What is their European history?
Their best results came in the 1970s where they made the final of both the European Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup. They have not made it to the quarter final stage in any UEFA / Europa cup competition since 1995. In this competition, they beat Maribor 2-0 at home, beat Braga 2-1 away and lost to Birmingham 2-1 at home!
9. How good are they?
Their winning away in Braga made them likely favourites in the table, but their capitulation at home to us has given them a point to prove. They currently sit behind us, level on points, two goals ahead, due to the head-to-head ‘ruling’. As we beat them, we are ahead of them in the table. Great! Maxime Lestienne, Matej Vydra, Vladan Kujovic and Fredrik Stenman are all out due to injury.
They are ranked 57th by UEFA just ahead of Celtic. We are 96th…at present. 🙂
10. What is their website?
11. Any history against British clubs?
In both their European finals they were beaten by Liverpool. They were beaten by a giant team from the Midlands, 2-1, at home, in their last Europa League match.
12. Outlook
FC Brugge are a tough team, even without their manager (you all know how the caretaker manager can work wonders in his first few games!) so we will have our work cut out for us even if Chris Hughton plays his strongest eleven. He has advised his squad quite rightly not to take them lightly, and has suggested he will be rotating his squad accordingly. A win here would leave us with only one more win needed to GUARANTEE progress to the Knockout Stage. Wade Elliott and Pablo Ibanez could well feature for us, whilst Mutch, Valles and Gomis are all still out. I would tip a starting lineup of Myhill, Carr, Ibanez, Davies, Ridgwell, Redmond, N’Daw, Fahey, Burke, Wood and King. Bench: Doyle, Murphy, Spector, Beausejour, Caldwell, Rooney and Zigic.
Those not lucky enough to be joining me at St Andrews for tomorrow’s 2005 GMT kick off, may wish to follow the action on our discussion forum, with other Bluenoses from the “corners” of the globe…
My prediction is Blues 1 Brugge 0
Keep Right On.
Russell Dempsey
I think he will play Murphy(perhaps left mid) and Zigic. Spector at right back instead of Carr is a possibility.
I reckon 1-1. The squad are getting tired and nobody underestimates any more. Then there’s the ‘Curse of Blues’ where a team goes to pieces after losing to us and the manager gets sacked! Teams are starting to focues when they play us and our strngths and weaknesses are starting to become discernable. They’ll be watching Jean Beasejour and Chris Wood very closely.
Now i know a hell of a lot more about Brugge, extremely useful article with a postive outlook for the Blues, KRO.