Club - Atalanta: Club facts

The Fixture

At the occasion of Club's 40th game of the season, a thrilling encounter awaits as it takes on the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Knock Out Play-Offs.

It will be the 18th time Club Brugge has made it to the final phase of a European competition:

Club featured in 2 Finals: 1976 UEFA Cup and 1978 Europacup I.
Three times, Club made it to a Semi Final: 1988 UEFA Cup, 1992 Europacup II and 2024 UEFA Conference League
The Round of 8 has been reached on 4 occasions: Europacup II in 1971 and 1995, Europacup I in 1977 and UEFA Europa League in 2015
On two occasions, the Round of 16 was the terminus: UEFA Cup in 2004 and the UEFA Champions League in 2023.
The Play-Off round has only been introduced in the UCL as of this season; Club made it to this round as one of the best 24 teams.
The Round of 32 was achieved on 6 occasions: UEFA Cup in 2006, UEFA Europa League in 2010, 2012, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Some European stats prior to this encounter:

For the 370th time, the European stage has been set for Club. For Atalanta, it will be 87th time in Europe.
For the 116th time, a Belgian team picks up the gauntlet against an Italian team.
The UCL game will be Club's 105th game.
Club has been through 11 UCL campaigns (group stages) so far, while Atalanta has had four by now.

The two teams are set to meet for the first time in Europe, Atalanta the 137th unique opponent for Club Brugge in its rich and fabled European history, the 8th unique team from Italy for a 25th Italian game for Club.

Coach Nicky Hayen has all the makings of becoming an Italian magneet. In his short stay at Club, he has had ACF Fiorentina, AC Milan and Juventus, and now sees Atalanta BC visit Club.

In home games against Italian outfits, Club won 3, drew 4 and lost 5.

Never has an Italian player worn the Club Brugge jersey. In Antolin Alcaraz, Sébastien Bruzzese, Maroc Camozzato, Fernando Menegazzo, Pietro Perdichizzi, Federico Ricca and Stijn Stijnen, Club lured players with Italian as the second nationality.

Two Belgians wore the Atalanta BC colours so far:

Timothy Castagne (Defender, Jul 2017-Sep 2020, 96m 8g)
Charles De Ketelaere (Midfielder, Aug 2022-current, 85m 25g)

Only three players have played for both teams at one point in their career:

Young Nigerian middenvelder Aminu Sani (19) was part of the Atalanta U21s when Club came knocking in the Summer of 1999. With just eight appearances under his belt, he left Club for Brussels Strombeek, only to join Israeli Hapoel Beer Sheva later on.
Charles De Ketelaere kicked off his time at Club Brugge at the age of 7, going through all youth ranks, and breaking through to the seniors in the Autumn of 2019 under coach Philippe Clement. Club went on to win the league three times in a row with CDK, playing a pivotal role in that silverware in his last season in Belgium, scoring 18 and providing 11 assists. These stats earned him a transfer to AC Milan, leaving for Atalanta just one year later, where he won the Europa League the following year, played the Cup Final, and made it to the UCL. Little reason for Atalanta not to sign Milan last Summer, and stringing along the grea performances, CDK has now recently also been awarded the Best Belgian Abroad trophy at the Golden Shoe Award Show.
Back in 2019, Odilon Kossounou joined Club from Swedish Hammarby IF, making his debut for Club in the same game as CDK, i.e. the Cup game against Francs Borains. Forcing his break-through in his second year at Club, the 18-year old player from Ivory Coast left Club in 2021 for Bayer Leverkusen, making part of the team that won the German championship in 2024 with just one defeat, but also won the Pokal and lost the UEL Final to Atalanta. A loan spell has brought him to Italy now.

A 3-1 defeat at Manchester City put Club just inside the top 24 on the final match day of the UCL League phase. Stuck at 2-2 in their last game at FC Barcelona, Atalanta BC saw Lille and Aston Villa leapfrog the team to the top 8, with Atalanta forced to settle for spot 9.

The Play-Off rounds features 16 teams, all aspiring to make it to the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, where the top 8 awaits. The winners of the encounter between Club Brugge and Atalanta will be playing either Lille OSC (Fra) or Aston Villa FC (Eng).

Kyriani Sabbe, Casper Nielsen, Christos Tzolis, Hans Vanaken and Raphael Onyedika's sole goal all make them top scorer for Club so far. With one assist, Ferran Jutglà, Hugo Vetlesen, Hans Vanaken and Raphael Onyedika also top the table.

At Atalanta, both Charles De Ketelaere and Ademola Lookman managed to tap in four so far. CDK also tops the assist table with five to his name. De Ketelaere could be the first player in an Italian team to be involved in at least 10 goals since Edin Dzeko in 2018 (8 goals + 2 assists, AS Roma).

Even if this has only been the fourth UCL campaign for Atalanta, it has managed to go past the group stages twice, with the Round of 8 in 2020 and the Round of 16 in 2021.

Only once has "La Dea" gone defeated in this season's UCL, only suffering a loss against Real Madrid CF (Esp). With just six goals conceded, they are only outdone by Internazionale (Ita, 1), Arsenal FC (Eng, 3) and Liverpool FC (Eng, 5).

Joel Ordóñez (20) is the youngest player in this UEFA Champions League to have played every minute so far (720). The only Club player U21 to have played more minutes in the UCL is Charles De Ketelaere (1084 min).

The Opponent

Founded in 1907, the team is a fusion with FC Bergamo, and was further known as Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, playing in the beautiful blue and black colours. The team earned promotion to the Serie A in 1937, making it to the top 5 for the first time in 1948. It was only in 2017 that they managed to outdo that feat by coming in fourth, only to break that record again in 2019, ending in third position for three years in a row. The team has two prizes in its cabinet: the Coppa Italia in 1963 and the UEFA Europa League in 2024.

Last season:

Atalanta BC ended in fourth position, 25 points behind runaway leaders Inter. It was their 6th top 5 spot in the last 8.
A win by the smallest of margins was enough for Juve to beat Atalanta in the Coppa Italia Final.
Having won its UEFA Europa League group with Sporting Lisbon, Sturm Graz and Raków Czestochowa. On their way to the final, Atalanta went past Sporting Lisbon, Liverpool FC and Olympique Marseille, to finally meet with the by then unbeatable Bayer Leverkusen. A stormy encounter ended in a3-0 win for the Italians.
Back in August, Atalanta suffered defeat at the hands of UCL winners Real Madrid (2-0) at the occasion of the UEFA Supercup.
Leading the goal scorer's table was Gianluca Scamacca with 19 goals in 47 official games, followed by Ademola Lookman and Teun Koopmeiners.
Aleksey Miranchuk provided the most assists, i.e. 12 in 53 encounters, followed by Charles De Ketelaere (11 ass) and Ademola Lookman (7 ass).

24 Match Days into the current season, Atalanta is in third place with 50 points, five less than league leaders SSC Napoli and 1 behind reigning champions Inter. Back in December Atalanta even topped the table for a while, but was forced to give way in 2025. In last weekend's fixture, bottom-of-the-table Hellas Verona was sent packing 0-5, with Mateo Retegui walking away with the MVP award having scored four. A minor injury kept CDK on the bench in the second half. Odilon Kossounou has been out for over a month now, suffering from an adductories injury.

The Italian Cup has not exactly seen a dream run for Atalanta, having first sailed past Cesena in the Round of 16 (6-1), but suffering defeat just one week ago in the Round of 8 against Bologna FC (0-1).

With 23 goals in 33 games, Mateo Retegui is the team's top scorer (20 Serie A, 3 UCL). Ademola Lookman (14 goals) and Charles De Ketelaere (11 goals) follow.

Setting up 11 team mates, Charles De Ketelaere produced the most assists (6 Seria A, 5 UCL).

Skipper at Atalanta is 34 year old Italian defender Rafael Tolói; born in Brasil, he has been at Atalanta for ten years now. When unavailable, Tolói is replaced by Dutchman Marten de Roon (33) as captain.

Ever since taking over in 2016, Italian coach Gian Piero Gasperini (67) has turned Atalanta into a steady top 5 team.

Two players left the team during the Winter window: defender Ben Godfrey and midfielder Nicolò Zaniolo.

On the IN side, the following players joined:

Attacking midfielder Daniel Maldini, son of Paolo and grandson to Cesare Maldini.
Right back Stefan Posch is out on loan from FC Bologna.

Milestones

Ferran Jutglà might be up for a 130th official encounter with Club.
This might be game 40 for Romeo Vermant at FCB.
Both Joel Ordóñez and Bjorn Meijer could be playing in Europe for the 20th time for Club.

The Man in Black

A Turkish ref for this play-off 1st leg: Mr. Halil Umut Meler has been appointed, backed by his assistants Mr. Kerem Ersoy, Mr. Ibrahim Çaglar Uyarcan and fourth official Mr. Arda Kardeşler.

In charge of VAR will be Dutchman Mr. Pol van Boekel, assisted by Mr. Willy Delajod. Observing UEFA will be Mr. Stéphane Lannoy, and representing UEFA will be Mrs. Diana Bulgaru.

For the third season in a row, the Turkish ref will have a game involving Club::