Making another trip to the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges on Boxing Day is certainly no gift.  Three points are on this year’s Westel wish list though and would be a fantastic end to 2024, with one point we – Kempen sobriety? – will be satisfied too. Or are we?

KVC Westerlo

With the draw against Mechelen, there was nothing to complain about. Fair result, what both teams could still claim the winning goal in the last part of the match. However, both goalkeepers were on standby and VAR also did its job in favour of the Kemphans in the closing seconds. The discussion about the handball of a Mechelen player in the penalty area, could be talked about for hours. The final conclusion was that the ball did not go on the dot, point other line.

With the suspensions of Matija Frigan and Josimar Alcocer, our staff will have to look for who they will put deep in the striker. Looking at the top marksmen list, two players who regularly pick up a goal would qualify for that: Allayhar Sayyadmanesh and … Luka Vuskovic. Our 17-year-old Croatian has already scored 5 goals in this competition and 9 in 44 games in his early professional career. Quite a phenomenon, although he will have to be careful not to be suspended the next game, against STVV at the Kuipje. Bryan, Sinan and Allayhar are also on 4 yellow cartons.

Club Brugge is the club we have the least win ratio against: 4.7%. Of the 43 mutual matches, 2 have already been victorious: in October 1999 (1-0), it was Vedran Pelic who gave us the win with 1 goal and most recently in 2022 (0-2), Lyle Foster was the hero with 2 goals.

Club Brugge

Easier said than done, if you want to win points against Blue Black these days, you really have to be top. Since October, they have played 17 games, with one defeat (at Milan) and four draws. Need we write more? A well-oiled diesel – they got off to a slow start in the season – that outclasses its opponents both nationally, and internationally, and have since become a veritable TGV.

Three players will definitely not be there: Raphael Onyedika and the 2 left backs: Bjorn Meijer and Maxim De Cuyper. No worries for the latter position as revelation Joaquin Seys – who was already in national coach Tedesco’s selection last time out – can play both right and left back.

Do Brandon Mechele and Hans Vanaken also deserve selection for the Red Devils. Analysts unanimously say yes. We can follow them. Captain Vanaken was also the only player to kick off in all 28 matches played, while already 19 different players managed to find their way to the goal. The standouts here are Greek Tzolis (8), Skov Olsen (7), Devils’ Vanaken (7) and deep striker Nilsson (5). It is also noteworthy that youngster Chemsdine Talbi, with 680 playing minutes in 21 games, also managed to score five times.

Nathan Verboomen

Was also our referee in Anderlecht for the league this season. A nice draw (2-2) came out then. In that match, he had to top no fewer than nine yellow cards. If we go back in time, he refereed 9 more matches for us. Five times at the Kuipje: Eupen 1-2, OHL 2-2, Charleroi 0-2, Antwerp 3-3 and Kortrijk 1-0. On the move, it was against STVV 2-2, Union 3-1, Cercle Brugge 2-1 and KV Mechelen 3-1.

Text and statistics: Peter Boons