Deprived of the title by Antwerp last year, the people of Bruges regain their place at the top of Belgian football.
Club Bruges regains the throne in Belgium. Bruges became Belgian champions for the 19th time in their history by drawing against their neighbor Cercle de Bruges 0-0 on Sunday evening at the end of a final day of stifling suspense competition. The Club only needed one point to be crowned while two other teams could still claim the title 90 minutes before the end of the season: Union Saint-Gilloise and Anderlecht.
The “Blauw en Zwart” (Blue and black) however scared themselves very much, conceding a goal in the 83rd minute, finally canceled for an offside which will be debated. The results of this last day (Union’s 2-0 victory against Genk and Anderlecht’s 3-1 defeat against Antwerp) allowed Bruges to finally beat the Union by one point and Anderlecht by four points.
Union Saint-Gilloise had dominated the regular season
This coronation is a small miracle for the Gazelles: at the end of the classic phase between the eighteen D1 clubs, Bruges (51 points) was 19 points behind Union Saint-Gilloise (70)! But the division of points by two during the play-offs pitting the six best-ranked teams against each other, and the failed start of the Union in this final sprint (four defeats in a row), allowed the “Blauw en Zwart” to put the people of Brussels on the edge.
The club based at the Marien stadium in Forest (Brussels) saw a title slip away from nothing for the third year in a row. The team coached by the German Alex Blessin, however, consoled itself with its victory in the Belgian Cup ten days ago, a first in 110 years for one of the oldest clubs in Belgium.
With this championship title, Club Bruges, coached by Nicky Hayen, validates its ticket for the group stage of the next Champions League while the Union will have to go through two preliminary rounds, under penalty of being transferred to the Europa League . Anderlecht, 3rd, will play a play-off to access the same competition.
