Club Brugge - Cercle Brugge: The Club Facts

Tomorrow the city derby is scheduled! Find out all about the match against Cercle here.

The match

The teams face each other for the ^159th time at the highest level. It will be the ^80th time Club hosts Cercle. The 79 previous home matches resulted in 48 wins, 19 draws and 12 defeats.

In the last 31 years, Club lost only 1 of its 23 home matches against its neighbors (16W 6D): a 0-1 defeat in November 2010. Equally remarkable is that the last 5 mutual duels ended undecided each time. Before that, 43 duels were needed for as many draws (31W 7L).

If Club can win on Sunday, it books its third consecutive victory after victories against Antwerp (1-0) and Dender (1-2).

Gustaf Nilsson could keep up with Andreas Skov Olsen as Club's top marksman (2 goals). Hans Vanaken signed for his 89th assist at Club Brugge in Denderleeuw. Maxim De Cuyper already put his assist counter to 15. The left back is already involved in 20 goals in 65 matches for Club.

The opponent

Green and Black already have a busy schedule under their belt with 6 preliminary round matches in the Europa League and Conference League. Aiming to qualify for the Conference League Phase, Cercle was given a rest last weekend.

Cercle was able to eliminate Poland's Wisla Krakow thanks to a record-breaking 1-6 victory on the road, but ran into its biggest home defeat in European history (1-4) on Thursday with an experimental squad. In doing so, it qualified for a European group stage for the first time in their existence. Their opponents in the League Phase of the Conference League are Istanbul Basaksehir (Tur), FC Sankt Gallen (Sui) and LASK Linz (Aut). Also included are Olimpija Ljubljana (Svn), Hearts (Sco) and Vikingur (Isl).

Newcomer Paris Brunner (18 years and 185 days) is the second youngest debutant for Cercle after Tarick Ximenes in April 2023 (18 years 176 days). The young German is on loan from AS Monaco (Fra).

Cercle said goodbye to Jesper Daland (Nor) who moved to Cardiff FC (Wal/Eng). With Sébastien Bruzzese and Hugo Siguet, 2 players with a Blue-Black link left. Finally, Emilio Kehrer, Thomas Didillon, Leonardo Lopes, Louis Torres, Félix Lemaréchal and Jordan Semedo also left the Association.

Kévin Denkey is once again top marksman at Cercle. He could already score 2 goals this season. Along with goalkeeper Warleson, he is the only player who has not missed a minute in the Jupiler Pro League. Captain Thibo Somers already handed out 2 assists.

Milestones

• Ferran Jutglà can play his 75th league match for Club.

Referee

Jasper Vergoote was appointed ref for the neighbors duel. Michael Geerolf and Martijn Tiesters are the linesmen. Bert Put is the fourth man.

The 32-year-old ref is leading an official Club match for the 14th time. Only 3 times before that was in a Club home match (1W 1D 1L). Vergoote is whistling Cercle's match for the 15th time. The 8 previous away matches in that series ended in 4 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat. But it's the first time the ref from Varsenare is leading a duel between the two Bruges teams.

Lawrence Visser is the VAR on duty. He will be assisted by Ella De Vries and Carlos-Manuel Serra Guerreiro Alho.