Preparation time is over as we are one day away from the Super Cup. The first trophy to be won this season! Blauw-Zwart ended the pres-season friendlies with a 3-0 win over Norwich City and are gearing up for this first real test.
Club Brugge remained faultless in the preparation, in which many Club academy players got the chance to show their potentional with NXT players Jesse Bisiwu, Chemsdine Talbi and Víctor Barberà finding the back of the net, and Joaquin Seys and Amine Et-Taïbi getting a lot of minutes.
Club won against AEK Athens (4-1) and Norwich City (3-0), while drawing level with Knokke FC (1-1), PSV Eindhoven (1-1) and FCV Dender (0-0).
Super Cup
The first official match of the season is the duel between Club Brugge, winning the title last season for the 19th time, and Union, who lifted the cup for the third time in their existence.
This is the 46th time the Belgian Super Cup will be played. Thirty-five of the previous 45, the national champion was able to win the Supercup. In the previous eighteen years, that has always been the case. Club was the last team to win the Supercup as the cup winner. In 2004 Hermans and Lange won it for Blauw-Zwart away against Anderlecht (0-2).
It will be the 21th Super Cup for Club, meaning Club will have played the most Supercups, as Anderlecht played 20 so far. Club is also the record holder with 17 Supercups.
Club won all of the 12 previous Super Cups in which Club played at home as national champion.
There will be no extra time if the game is still tied after ninety minutes. We go straight to penalties.
The selection
Zaid Romero, Christos Tzolis and Gustaf Nilsson could made their first official appearance for Club. For Nilsson it would be a special game, as he faces his former team.
Hans Vanaken is starting his tenth season at Club Brugge. It's the fifth Supercup for the midfielder and he can win it for the fourth time. Brandon Mechele, the other record champion at Club, can feature in the Supercup for the fourth time.
The opponent
Our opponent tonight is Union Saint-Gilloise. It will be our 98th confrontation with them after 93 league matches and 4 cup games. Les Unionistes were close to winning the title last year after a tremendous run in the regular season, but it was Club were the stronger side in the final sprint of the title run.
We host Union tonight as they won the Belgian Cup after beating Meux, SK Beveren, RSC Anderlecht and us before setting aside Antwerp 1-0 in the final. It was their third cup win after having won it in 1913 and 1914.
Since the Super Cup was only introduced in 1979, it's the first time for Union to feature in it as their last title (in 1935) and cup (second but last in 1914) preceded that year.
Union starts the season with a new head coach: Sébastien Pocognoli. The 36-year-old played as a left full-back for KRC Genk, AZ Alkmaar, Standard de Liège, Hannover 96, West Bromwich Albion and Brighton. He ended his active playing career in 2021 with Union, who had just earned promotion to the top flight. In 2021 he started as coach with Union's U21, he ten moved to Genk's U18 a year later and last season he coached Belgium's U18. Union is the first club to give him a chance as head coach.
Pocognoli also gathered 13 caps for the Belgian national team.
Last Wednesday Union played their last pre-season friendly. In the Algarve they drew 2-2 with Portugese champions Sporting Lisboa. Noah Sadiki and new signing Promise David bagged one for la Vieille Dame.
Union also played friendlies against PAOK (1-2 win), Go Ahead Eagles (1-2 win), Patro Eisden (2-2 draw) and KFC Nijlen (0-8 win).
Milestones
- Hans Vanaken can play his 450th official match for Club Brugge.
- Raphael Onyedika can play his 90th official match for Blauw-Zwart.
- Chemsdine Talbi and Lynnt Audoor can play their 10th match for Club.
The referee
Bram Van Driessche has been appointed referee for the first official match of the season. He will be assisted by Yves De Neve and Quentin Lesceux. Kevin Van Damme is the fourth official.
Van Driessche is whistling Blauw-Zwart's 29th official match. Its 14 previous matches at Jan Breydel resulted in 10 wins and four draws.
The 39-year-old referee was the ref in 2 previous duels between the two teams: Club's home match in the Belgian Cup semi-finals last season (2-1 win) and the away match in the 2023 Champions' Play-Offs (1-3 win).
The match will also be an experiment for the refereeing team. Van Driessche will wear a bodycam so viewers can see how a match is experienced by the refs. There are also a few more rules that will make their appearance from this season, including about penalties, hand play rules and only the captain being allowed to have a word with the ref.