Belgian media amplify Club Brugge’s aggregate lead over Rangers: “If this goes wrong, it will reverberate for a long time” | OneFootball

Club Brugge host Rangers tomorrow evening in a huge Champions League qualifying match at the Jan Breydel Stadion. Following their first-leg 3-1 win at Ibrox, the home side can progress with a composed performance in Belgium. That said, the two-goal advantage can easily be seen as a factor to negatively affect the Blauw-Zwart.

The permutations of a potential Rangers comeback were carefully underlined in the HLN Football Podcast. In the lead-up to the second leg, HLN called defender Brandon Mechele to check the temperature at Basecamp.

“If we play like we did in the first half in Glasgow, we should be fine,” he said. “It’s true that we shouldn’t give this away anymore, but you have to start with the right mindset.”

After this, the podcast panel reflected that Club Brugge have no excuse for missing out on the Champions League. VTM NIEUWS journalist Jarno Bertho stated that, since the abolition of the away goals rule, no team has ever conceded a 1-3 bonus in Europe.

“If this goes wrong, it will reverberate at Club Brugge for a long time. And certainly in the upper echelons,” adds football chief Niels Poissonnier. This is especially true because the blue-blacks secretly hoped to face Rangers before the play-off draw.

“After the friendly match in pre-season, they felt like that team suited them. Despite the draw, they were the better team. But if Club does get knocked out, it will hit them hard.”

GBeNeFN | Max Bradfield