Conference League: The profile of PAOK’s opponent, Club Brugge – 2024-03-16 08:28:53

PAOK’s opponent in the “8” of the Conference League is Club Brugge. The Belgian team, founded in 1891, has dark blue and black colors and is based at the “Jan Breidel”, with a capacity of 29,042 seats. It is a traditional powerhouse of Belgian football, with 18 Championships, 11 Cups and 17 Super Cups.

Club Brugge started their journey in the 2nd qualifying round of the competition and eliminated Aarhus, Akureyri and Osasuna, while in the group they managed to finish in first place, above Bodo Glimt, Besiktas and Lugano. In the round of 16, they faced Molde. They lost 2-1 in Norway, but in the second leg they won 3-0 and qualified.

In the league, they are in third place with 51 points: -12 from the second, Anderlecht and -18 from the leader, Union Saint-Jiloise with one game remaining before the end of the regular season.

The coach of Bruges is the Norwegian Ronnie Deila, while its market value is 125 million euros. Its most expensive players are Skov Olsen and Antonio Nousa with a value of 18 million euros and 17 million euros respectively, while the striker, Igor Thiago, is having an excellent season, with 26 goals and four assists in 43 appearances in all competitions.

The star of the Belgians is Olsen, he is a player with quality and technical training, scoring 22 goals and eight assists this year. Important units are former Olympiakos player Philip Zinkernagel and experienced midfielder and captain Hans Vanaken.

The experienced Simon Mignolet sits under the posts, while Maxime de Kuyper stands out in defense.

PAOK and Club Brugge will not face each other for the first time, since they were in a Europa League group in the 2010-11 season. Both matches were drawn 1-1, while there is also a player who is still on the “black and white” roster: And he is none other than the captain, Andre Vieirania, who even scored in the Toumba match.

PAOK was defeated in 1967 by Liege and since then has never lost to a Belgian team. In addition, Brugge are without a win in their six visits to Greece.

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