On Sunday 12 November, Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge will play the magical Bruges derby. The first derby was played on 4 November 1900, ending in a 0-0 draw. Afterwards, the two teams met more than 150 times. The last time, the match also ended in a draw: 2-2. The winner of the city derby gets to call itself the team of ‘t stad.
General
Ever since 1975, the city derby, like all home matches between Club and Cercle, has taken place at the Jan Breydel Stadium. But in the derby, not only do two teams from the same city and stadium face each other, but also two teams with different cultures. When Cercle Brugge was founded, from the school of the Xaverian Brothers, it was a club that presented itself as Catholic. Club Brugge was much less ideological, and therefore more neutral, than Cercle.
Although Cercle was the first of the two to win a national title in 1911, it was Club Brugge that grew into the club with the biggest budget and the biggest honours list in the 20th century. This season, however, the Association is doing better in the Jupiler Pro League than Club. Cercle is currently in 4th place, but 5 points behind KAA Gent and 10 points behind leader Union. Club has a better chance of overtaking its city rival, because although it is in 7th place there are only 2 points difference.
Club Brugge
Club was founded on 13 November 1891, and has tribal number 3. It has played continuously in the highest division of Belgian football since 1959. Of the two Brugge teams, it is the most successful and popular by following. Among other things, it has already won the national championship 18 times.
But this season they got off to a poor start, ranking 7th in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League. In their previous game in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League, on Sunday 5 November against Union, they lost 2-1. In European football, they are doing a little better though; they are in first place in Group D of the Europa Conference League.
At Club Brugge, we can already count on some star players like Simon Mignolet, Hans Vanaken and also Andreas Skov Olsen. The Dane already scored 7 goals and gave 3 assists in this Pro League season, and he could also score in the Champions League.
Criticism may be levelled at coach Ronny Deila and summer acquisition Philip Zinckernagel. For example, Deila placed three similar players on the pitch last time: Nielsen, Balanta and Odoi. The three defensive midfielders found it hard to defend out. And Deila was also the one who wanted to bring Zinckernagel to Bruges, but the latter has not been at level for weeks. Even against Union, he was almost invisible.
Cercle Brugge
The Association was founded on 9 April 1899, and has tribal number 12. They played for the first time in the highest division in the 1900-1901 season. Afterwards, they usually finished in the middle or sub-top, but in 1936 they finished in penultimate place and had to be relegated for the first time. After playing in the first division again two years later, they had to alternate several times in the following years.
This season, Cercle Brugge are in a good position in the Jupiler Pro League: they are in 4th place with 21 points. If they win against Club, they will take a big step towards Ghent, who are in third place with 26 points. Then they will have to come out of their dip from last week, when they lost against Anderlecht and Zulte Waregem. Their loss against Zulte Waregem also prevented them from progressing beyond the 1/16th final in the Belgian Cup.
Cercle Brugge do have to do without three of their best players. Both Christiaan Ravych, Leonardo Lopes and captain Thibo Somers suffered injuries, meaning they will have to be missed in the coming weeks.
Someone who can provide danger at Cercle, however, is Kévin Denkey. The player from Togo has already scored 10 goals in 13 games in the Jupiler Pro League, as well as one in the Croky Cup. Last week, he was voted the ‘Golden Player’, the best player of the past month in the Jupiler Pro League.
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