A difference with Standard, a parallel with Ghent: “Club Brugge concedes too many goals and that will be punished against Marseille”
Club Brugge faces a difficult task to reach the top 24 in the League Phase of the Champions League. We must win against Marseille and then some other results must also be good. But first beat Marseille yourself. Analysts Arnar Vidarsson and Franky Van der Elst express their doubts about that scenario.
What are the odds for Club Brugge, currently 27th in the standings?
Club Brugge must win against Marseille anyway. In that case, it jumps over Marseille in the standings and has to pass 2 other teams.
This means that 5 of the following 7 teams can win:
Olympiakos (to Ajax)
Copenhagen (to Barcelona)
Leverkusen (at home against Villarreal)
Monaco (home against Juventus)
Napoli (home vs Chelsea)
PSV (at home against Bayern)
Bilbao (at home against Sporting)
If Qarabag (against Liverpool) and/or Galatasaray (against City) lose big on the final matchday, blue-black can also jump over them based on goal difference.
There is also a tiny chance that Club will advance with a draw, but then many teams will have to lose heavily on the final match day. Not very realistic.
Difference with Standard, parallel with Ghent
Can Club Brugge beat Olympique Marseille on Wednesday evening? In our weekly column one-two punch, Arnar Vidarsson and Franky Van der Elst answer “no.”
“I’m a fan of their coach (Roberto De Zerbi) and their way of playing football,” said Vidarsson. “On a good day they can be so dominant with their ball possession. Club will need 11 top-level players to advance.”
Franky Van der Elst nods: “On Saturday they (against Lens, ed) were impressive in the first half. They have a lot of speed, footballing ability and scoring ability. The goals are not scored by just one player.”
“I think Club will have to play the perfect match to win. Then they cannot make any mistakes at the back and the attacking line must be very efficient, because they will not be able to create much.”
Ivan Leko’s philosophy works with a good defensive block. That didn’t work out at Ghent and it hasn’t worked out at Club either.
Arnar Vidarsson
The defensive issues in particular worry our analysts. Under Ivan Leko, Club has already conceded 17 goals in 8 matches. Not once did it keep a clean sheet.
Van der Elst: “They concede too many goals, at whatever level. That has to be removed in order to move on to the next round.”
Vidarsson: “It strikes me how AA Gent has also conceded many goals under Leko. That is a bit unusual for him.”
“Last year, with Standard, he was one of the teams with the fewest goals conceded for a long time. Leko’s philosophy works with a good defensive block. That did not work at Ghent and it has not yet worked out at Club.”
The Icelander also looks at the goalkeeper. “I don’t think Nordin Jackers is good enough in goal for the level of the Champions League.”
“There have been too many goals where his position or goalkeeping was not good enough. At this level that is punished very quickly.”
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