Club Brugge and Mechelen will kick off their Belgian Pro League campaigns on Sunday, when they square off at the Jan Breydel Stadium.
Under the new management of Ronny Deila, the hosts have already been in competitive action in Europa Conference League qualifying, and will hope to kick off their title bid with three points, while Mechelen kicked off their season in the Belgian Super Cup final last weekend.
Match preview
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Club Brugge head into the new Belgian Pro League season hoping to bounce back from a tough domestic campaign last time around, as they failed in their bid to win a fourth straight league title.
The Blauw-Zwart finish the regular season in fourth place, sealing the final spot in the top playoff group as a result, as they picked up 59 points from their 34 games, before losses to Genk and Union Saint-Gilloise meant they were unable to climb into the top three in their title defence and had to settle for a place in Europa Conference League qualifying this term.
After Carl Hoefkens and Scott Parker saw their tenures come to an end, they finished that season under the management of Rik De Mil, and the Blauw-Zwart have now turned to former New York City FC and Standard Liege boss Ronny Deila to lead them into the new campaign, and his tenure started with a mixed pre-season campaign, in which they scored victories over Beerschot and Go Ahead Eagles while suffering defeats to Zulte Waregem, Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar.
They were then in competitive action for the first time this season on Thursday in the first leg of their Europa Conference League second-qualifying-round tie against Aarhus, and they put up a dominant display on home turf, moving into a 3-0 aggregate lead as Tajon Buchanan opened the scoring in the 10th minute and Mats Rits and Hugo Vetlesen netted second half goals.
Now with some confidence in the camp following that strong start to the continental campaign, Deila's men will now aim to begin with three points in their bid to regain the Belgian Pro League title this year.
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They meet a Mechelen side who are also hoping to improve in the league this time around after taking somewhat of a backwards step in Belgium's top flight last season.
After reaching the playoffs in the 2021-22 campaign, De Kakkers only managed a 13th-placed finish in the Pro League last year, as they picked up 40 points from their 34 matches, with Steven Defour having stepped into the hot seat in October.
They did enjoy more success in the Belgian Cup, though, initially progressing through the sixth and seventh rounds with victories over Lokeren-Temse and Seraing, before triumphing over Kortrijk in the quarter-finals and booking a place in the final with a 3-1 aggregate victory against Zulte Waregem, having won 2-1 on their travels and 1-0 on home turf.
That booked them a meeting with Royal Antwerp in Brussels, but De Kakkers were unable to go all the way, eventually losing 2-0 as Vincent Janssen and Michel-Ange Balikwisha netted goals for their opponents, who also won the league title, setting up a rematch between the two sides in the Belgian Super Cup at the start of the new term.
Following a run of victories in pre-season, Defour's men would take to the field for another opportunity to secure silverware on Sunday, and following a 1-1 draw in normal time, in which they drew level through a Richie De Laet own goal, they would eventually fall short on a penalty shootout on that occasion, although with important minutes in the bank, they will hope to bounce back from that disappointment and make a winning start to the league campaign away from home at the weekend with what would be a statement result.
Team News
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Following their resounding home victory over Aarhus in midweek, Club Brugge could come into Sunday's match with an unchanged starting XI, although Hugo Vetlesen will be fighting to come into the midfield after scoring their third goal off the bench in that game.
With Ferran Jutgla, who topped their scoring charts with 13 league goals last season, still sidelined by an injury that ruled him out of the last month of that campaign, Tajon Buchanan and Igor Thiago should again start up front, with additional responsibility also on attacking midfielder and captain Hans Vanaken, who has notched up 115 goals and 80 assists in 391 appearances for the club..
He will operate in front of the pairing of Mats Rits and Raphael Onyedika in the engine room, while Brandon Mechele, Jorne Spileers and Maxim De Cuyper could again line up in a back three.
Mechelen should also line up in a similar way to how they did last time out in the Super Cup in a 4-2-3-1 setup, with Lion Lauberbach bound to again lead the line following his summer arrival from Eintracht Braunschweig.
He will likely have support from the trio of Nikola Storm, Kerim Mrabti and Julien Ngoy, who netted five league goals in his debut season for the club last term.
Behind them, Ngal'ayel Mukau and Rob Schoofs should again line up in the engine room, while Dimitri Lavalee and Jordi Vanlerberghe will partner up at the heart of a back four.
Club Brugge possible starting lineup:
Mignolet; Mechele, Spileers, De Cuyper; Olsen, Onyedika, Rits, Nusa; Vanaken; Buchanan, Thiago
Mechelen possible starting lineup:
Coucke; Loiseux, Vanlerberghe, Lavalee, Van Hoorenbeeck; Mukau, Schoofs; Storm, Mrabti, Ngoy; Lauberbach
We say: Club Brugge 2-0 Mechelen
In their bid to regain the Belgian Pro League title, Club Brugge will be keen to make a strong start, and although Mechelen can take confidence from their resilience in the Super Cup, we anticipate Deila's men being too strong on home turf and taking all three points in the curtain-raiser.
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