This year, Union Saint-Gilles has a chance to achieve a good result in the Champions League. The Brussels club finished second in the Jupiler Pro League, earning a ticket to the qualifiers. On Wednesday, August 7, they will face Czech team Slavia Prague in these qualifiers. Read all about it in this article.
Champions League
The Champions League, formerly the European Cup I, has been organized since 1955. The record for the most wins belongs to Real Madrid: the Spanish top club has won this tournament 15 times. That is more than double the number of victories won by the second in the ranking: AC Milan has so far won 7 Champions League titles. The top scorer in this tournament is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese player has also played the most matches with 183 appearances and scored 140 times.
With this match, we are already in the third and final qualifying round for the most prestigious European club championship: the Champions League. Union plays this first match on Wednesday, August 7, and the return match on Tuesday, August 13. Exactly one week later, the knockout phase begins. The final is scheduled for Saturday, May 13.
Slavia Prague
This club was founded in 1892, when the Czech Republic was still part of the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary. It is also one of the most successful teams in the Czech Republic since independence in 1993. They play at the Fortuna Arena and have red and white as club colors. Because there is another team in the Czech capital, called Sparta Prague, the matches are also called the Prague Derbies. Slavia Prague has won 21 national titles and 11 Czech Cups.
Last year, Slavia Prague almost prevented their city rival Sparta from winning the national title. The ‘Iron Sparta’ won by just 2 points. In the final of the Czech Cup, Sparta Prague was also just too strong: they won by defeating Viktoria Pilsen 1-2. Here too, Slavia was knocked out of the tournament by Sparta in the quarterfinals.
Although Slavia Prague does not have many top players, they did manage to score often last year. The two players most responsible for that are Mojmir Chytil and Vaclav Jurecka. They scored 21 and 22 goals respectively, far more than any other player on the team.
Union SG
Union Saint-Gilles was founded in 1897 and has registration number 10. Since the 1920s, they have played their home games at the Joseph Marien Stadium. The Unionistes have yellow and blue as club colors. Union was also the most successful Belgian club before World War II, winning the national title eleven times. So far, only Anderlecht and Club Brugge have more titles. They have only been playing in the first division again since 2021, after an absence of 48 years.
In their third year after that comeback, it seemed for a long time that Union could once again win the Belgian title, but things went wrong in the playoffs. They dropped some points and saw Club Brugge race ahead to the title. On a European level, Union has also made an impression in recent years. In the 2022-23 season, they reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League, and last year the round of 16 in the Conference League was the end point.
German Alexander Blessin succeeded Felice Mazzu and Karel Geraerts as coach of Union. He led the team to the cup final, and almost to the national title. He did this partly with the duo Amoura-Puertas. Mohamed Amoura will no longer be seen at Union, as he has swapped the team for Wolfsburg. The future of Cameron Puertas in Brussels is also still uncertain. Together they scored 36 goals, but Gustaf Nilsson also scored 17 for the Brussels team.
If they win against the Czech team, Union will face Lille or Fenerbahçe. That is the result of the draw in Nyon, Switzerland. Lille finished fourth in the French Ligue 1 last season, and on a European level, they reached the quarterfinals of the Conference League. Fenerbahçe from Istanbul was the runner-up in Turkey, but like Lille, they ended up in the quarterfinals of the Conference League. If the Brussels team loses, they will enter the Europa League playoffs.
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