Tau’s Brugge hope to sneak into UCL knockouts

Galatasaray's UEFA Champions League ambitions are over for another season, while Percey Tau's Club Brugge's hopes of prolonging their campaign into the knockout rounds hang by a thread as the teams meet in Istanbul in the penultimate round of Group A games.

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The sides' goalless draw in Belgium on Matchday 1 represents Galatasaray's only point in this season's competition, leaving them fourth in the section and unable to finish in the top two.

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Club Brugge have two points and are in third position, although defeats by section leaders Paris Saint-Germain in their last two fixtures have left them five points adrift of second-placed Real Madrid. The Belgian side must therefore win in Turkey and hope Madrid fail to beat Paris at home to keep alive their round of 16 ambitions; Club Brugge will be confirmed in third position if they and Madrid both win on Matchday 5.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

The sides' only fixtures before this season came in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League first group stage when, after a goalless draw in Turkey on matchday three, Club Brugge won 3-1 at the Jan Breydelstadion thanks to goals from Sandy Martens, Gert Verheyen and Bengt Sæternes, Fábio Pinto with the sole Galatasaray response.

Those four points enabled Club Brugge to finish third in the section behind Barcelona and Lokomotiv Moskva, moving into the UEFA Cup; Galatasaray finished fourth on four points, one behind their Belgian rivals.

FORM GUIDE

Galatasaray

After that goalless draw at Club Brugge on Matchday 1, Gala lost 1-0 at home to both Paris and Real Madrid; a 6-0 loss in Spain last time out – their biggest defeat in the UEFA Champions League and joint heaviest in UEFA competition – extended Galatasaray's winless run in Europe to 11 fixtures (D3 L8).

Galatasaray kicked off their 2018/19 UEFA Champions League group campaign with a 3-0 home success against Lokomotiv Moskva, but picked up only one more point in their next five fixtures to finish third behind Porto and Schalke. They then lost to Benfica in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 (1-2 h, 0-0 a).

The defeat of Lokomotiv is Galatasaray's only win in their last 19 European fixtures (D6 L12).

The win against Loko ended a run of three successive home 1-1 draws in Europe for Galatasaray, who have won only two of their last 15 continental fixtures in Istanbul (D6 L7).

Gala have never beaten a Belgian club in seven previous attempts (D3 L4); they have drawn two of their three home games, most recently 1-1 against Anderlecht in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League group stage.

Turkish champions in 2018/19 for a record 22nd time, Galatasaray qualified for a 16th appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage – one more than all other Turkish teams combined.

Galatasaray are the only team from Turkey to have reached a European Cup semi-final, in 1989.

Club Brugge

After being held 0-0 at home by Galatasaray, their third successive goalless draw in the UEFA Champions League proper, Club Brugge ended that sequence on Matchday 2 with a 2-2 draw at Real Madrid. Their six-match unbeaten run in the group stage was emphatically ended by a 5-0 loss against Paris in Bruges on Matchday 3 – the club's heaviest at home in UEFA competition. The five goals Club Brugge conceded were two more than in their previous six group matches combined – before a 1-0 loss in France last time out.

Club Brugge have therefore failed to score in three of their four Group A games, and five of their last six matches in the UEFA Champions League proper.

Last season the Blauw-Zwart finished third behind Borussia Dortmund and Atlético Madrid on six points, five ahead of Monaco. Having lost their first two fixtures, the Belgian club were unbeaten in their last four – the sole victory a 4-0 win at Monaco that represented their biggest away success in the competition. Club Brugge then moved into the UEFA Europa League, losing to Salzburg in the round of 32 (2-1 h, 0-4 a).

Despite the win at Monaco – which ended a 13-year, 11-game run without a victory (D2 L9) – Club Brugge have won only three of their last 22 fixtures in the UEFA Champions League proper (D6 L13).

This season Club Brugge got the better of Dynamo Kyiv in the third qualifying round (1-0 h, 3-3 a) before a play-off victory against Austrian side LASK (1-0 a, 2-1 h). Their results on Matchdays 1 and 2 made it ten UEFA Champions League games without defeat (W4 D6), qualifying included, before the home loss to Paris on Matchday 3.

Club Brugge may have won two of their last seven away European matches (D3 L2) but those are their only successes in the last 19 such outings (D5 L12).

Club Brugge's last fixtures against Turkish opposition before Matchday 1 came in the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, when they lost 5-3 on aggregate to Istanbul Basaksehir (3-3 h, 0-2 a). Their record away to Turkish clubs is W1 D1 L2, all four of those games having been played in Istanbul.

Second in Belgium behind Genk in 2018/19, this is Club Brugge's seventh UEFA Champions League group campaign, and their third in four years. They have never progressed to the knockout rounds.

Runners-up to Liverpool in 1978, Club Brugge remain the only team from Belgium to have reached a European Cup final.

Source: UEFA.com