BRUSSELS (AP) — Three months ago, Club Bruges was lauded as Belgium’s Bayern.
They are now in fourth place in the Belgian league and their new coach Scott Parker is desperately trying to get them back on their feet. The Champions League presents itself as another tough test as they host Benfica on Wednesday in the first leg of the round of 16.
After Brugge crowned Belgian champions for a third straight season in May — their 18th title overall — with an appealing attacking football proposition, the team was looking forward to a Bayern Munich dynasty in Germany.
Sorting through a tough Champions League group that also included Atlético Madrid, Porto and Bayer Leverkusen, Brugge stunned last autumn by reaching the round of 16 of the tournament for the first time in three decades.
Led by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, with 31 saves in the group stage, Bruges kept their mark to zero in five games. They were also relentless to score timely goals thanks to the rise of Ferran Jutgla, formerly of Barcelona.
But like the rest of his teammates, the Spanish player entered a negative cycle from November and from which they have not yet shaken off.
Club Brugge have won just two of their last 13 matches in all competitions, trailing league leaders Genk by 20 points. In search of a shock, the leadership fired the previous coach Carl Hoefkens at the end of December and hired Parker but the change has not taken effect.
What there is is a certain stability. Under Parker, they have drawn five of seven games, including last week’s 1-1 draw against guard Union Saint Gilloise.
“Things are moving in the right direction”, said the center-back Jack Hendry before Benfica’s visit to the Jan Breydelstadion.
Benfica comes undefeated in its last seven Champions League games, with four wins and three draws. They will try to string together three victories in the European tournament for the first time since the 2005-06 season.
Despite the departure of Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernández to Chelsea last month, German coach Roger Schmidt has a very talented squad, in which striker Gonçalo Guedes is the goal card. He could also turn to the Dane Casper Tengstedt and the Norwegian Andreas Schjelderup, two attackers who were acquired in the winter market.
