Brussels’s side Union Saint Gilloise make their home debut in the Champions League competition tonight when they host Premier League big guns Newcastle United.
Union, who were last year’s Belgian league champions, are the definite underdogs but will feel quietly confident after a fine 3-1 win recently against PSV in their first Champions League fixture.
For Union, the fixture on 1 October is particularly historic as the club will be playing their first ever home game at this stage of the Champions League.
They are targeting a top-24 finish in the league phase, and place in play off round where they could land a game against a Euro football giant against the likes of Real Madrid.
Of course, Les Unionistes’ usual home, the Joseph Marien Stadium, holds less than 10,000 people and does not meet UEFA requirements. That means they are having to play their European home games at the nearby home of their fierce city rivals, Anderlecht.
The fixture contains numerous fascinating UK-Belgian connections: Union’s manager Sebastien Pocognoli is a former West Brom and Brighton left back in England. It is Pocognoli’s first season managing in senior football.
Newcastle will be desperate to get back to winning ways after Eddie Howe’s side fell to 2-1 defeat at home against Arsenal on Sunday, having led the match heading into the 84th minute, conceding the winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Newcastle also lost 2-1 at home to Spanish champions Barcelona in their opening game of their European campaign a fortnight ago.
A Union source said, “Thanks to goals from David, Ait El Hadj, and Mac Allister, we secured our first-ever Champions League victory. Poco & co. are looking to make history again.”
For two Union players, both British, the game will have special significance.
They include Christian Burgess who once plied his trade in the lower reaches of the English game. He told the BBC, “There is no way I ever thought I would be playing in that competition and for it to happen this late is very surreal. I thought back to my childhood and thought I can’t believe that I could possibly be leading a club out to play in that competition against these teams I used to be in awe of.”
Burgess, who moved to Belgium in 2020, took a degree at Teesside University in the north east of England and says he is grateful to have been able to carve a career out with football as well.
When he faced PSV on 16 September he was, at the age of 33 years and 344 days, the oldest English outfield player to make his Champions League debut since Steve Bould for Arsenal in November 1998.
His current defensive partner in the Union side is Ross Sykes, aged 26, who was signed in 2022 from lowly Accrington Stanley in north west England for whom he made 101 appearances. This after Union took a chance on him, he had been released by nearby Burnley because he was deemed to too small as a youngster.
Sykes says he supported Newcastle when he was younger and also told the BBC, “Playing against your boyhood club in the Champions League? It doesn’t get any better than that.”
The two British players helped Union win their first league title in 90 years last season and Sykes and Burgess have made over 300 appearances between them for the Brussels club.
Step back much further in time and you will find yet more direct British/Belgian connections to the game on Wednesday in the shape of Newcastle’s former Belgian centre back Philippe Albert.
He played under former England coach Kevin Keegan in the 1980s and has since acquired something of cult status among the Geordie fans. He starred for the club from 1994 to 1999 and Albert became a legend at St. James Park.
Keegan’s Entertainers as they were called came so close to winning the Premier League in 1995-96. One of the key components of this team was Albert, a marauding centre half signed from Anderlecht in 1994 after an impressive World Cup.
An article this week in Le Soir newspaper said his personality aligned closely with the working-class environment of Newcastle similar to that of his childhood in Bouillon. An unbreakable bond.
Meantime, Newcastle fans travelling for the game have been given special safety advice.
The club’s website says they should avoid the area around the stadium both before and after the match.
It says, “Supporters are advised to avoid the Anderlecht area around Lotto Park before and after the match. It is strongly recommended that supporters travel to the stadium from areas in the city centre. Do not socialise or gather in the Anderlecht area.”
“Street crime, including pickpocketing, can take place in Brussels. Supporters are advised to be vigilant, take sensible precautions and ensure they have valid travel insurance.”
