Belgian Teams at European Competitions: Recap
The new year is almost starting. After 6 match days in all major European competitions we know the group winners and losers. Time to find out how our Belgian teams have done so far, and what lies ahead.
Champions League
Royal Antwerp FC was the only Belgian team that could make it to the Champions League. The Great Old had a pitiful performance, with 0 points after 5 days of play. On the last matchday, it was against top club Barcelona at home. Barça crushed Antwerp 5-0 in Barcelona, but the Sinjoren surprised and still won 3-2. However, the three points were not enough to stay in the Champions League, nor to drop to the Europa League. Antwerp is therefore leaving the European stage.
Remarkable: Arthur Vermeeren, Antwerp’s golden boy, was omnipresent about the entire momentum. Especially after his masterclass against Barcelona, it looks like the young Red Devil will no longer play football in Belgium after the winter. On Monday, December 18, he received the award for best debutant in the Jupiler Pro League.
Europa League
Union was the only Belgian team in the Europa League. On the first matchday it drew with Toulouse, and on the second matchday it unsurprisingly lost to Liverpool. Then it won and lost against LASK Linz in the next two matchdays. After another draw against Toulouse, they were in a difficult position. Even with the spectacular victory against the great Liverpool on the last matchday, it had not scored enough points throughout its campaign. They also had to hope that Toulouse could not beat LASK Linz, but that match ended 2-1 in favor of Toulouse. As a result, Union will continue to hibernate in Europe, but in the Europa Conference League.
Union was presented with a hefty Liverpool B team, without Salah, Alisson and Van Dijk, among others. That team too often left too much space for the duo Cameron Puertas – Mohamed Amoura, who were therefore able to create many opportunities for the people of Brussels. It was also Amoura who gave Union the lead just after the half hour. A little later Liverpool straightened out the score, but that didn’t last very long either. Puertas made it 2-1 on a pass from Amoura.
Europe Conference League
In the intermediate rounds, Union will play against Eintracht Frankfurt, the defending champions in the Europa League. Frankfurt is therefore perhaps the strongest possible opponent of the non-seeds. The number 8 of the Bundesliga surprised a few weeks ago by beating leader Bayern Munich 5-1. In the Europa Conference League it came second with 9 points, after PAOK Athens.
Before the match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, the Buffaloes had already scored 13 out of 15, but then went down. The Israelis from Tel-Aviv eventually won 3-1 against a poor Ghent, which meant that their group win was lost. So in February they can play again against an Israeli team: Maccabi Haifa. This was able to maintain itself in group F, behind Villareal and Rennes. They did this mainly by scoring three points against Panathinaikos on the last matchday.
On matchday 1, Club Brugge played against Besiktas, but could not get further than 1-1. The West Flemish proved to be stronger against the Norwegians from Bodo/Glimt: they won 0-1. In Switzerland, Blauw-Zwart was also too strong, winning 1-3. Club was also able to win in the home round, this time 2-0. Club was dominant again against Besiktas, winning 0-5 against the Turkish team. On the last match day they were able to win again, 3-1 against Bodo/Glimt. With all those victories behind it, Club became group winner with 16 points, a monster score compared to other clubs.
Genk started its group stage in the Europa Conference League with a 2-2 draw against Fiorentina. Afterwards they won 2-0 against Cukaricki, but then drew again against Ferencvaros. After another draw, again against Ferencvaros, it was again against Fiorentina. This time the Italians were one size too strong and won 2-1. Last match day: Genk quickly fell ten at home to Cukaricki’s Serbs, but the Limburgers still won easily 2-0. Genk therefore ended up in 3rd place. That turned out not to be enough to be able to spend the winter in Europe.
Bet on Belgian Teams
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