Watch out Chelsea – The Brunos are coming | OneFootball

During Newcastle United’s (hopefully) temporary exclusion from European football, I have been following the fortunes of the Portuguese club Vitoria Guimaraes, aka the Brunos.

My selfless devotion to the Primeira Liga outfit was based solely on their name, which offered an obvious but rather superficial toon connection.

I had decided that, to give the European nights some degree of interest, I would adopt a club in the Conference League – the competition we qualified for but w’re then dumped out of for Chelsea following the Septic Salfords’ victory in the FA Cup final.

That gave them Chelsea’s Europa League place and shunted the West London billionaires into our European spot.

“The Brunos” weren’t my first choice, however. That honour went to the brilliantly named Bruno’s Magpies. They were an actual pub team from Gibraltar started by a bunch of young Geordies based in Bruno’s Bar on the Rock. Unfortunately, my first picks – despite punching well above their weight during the qualifying rounds – were eventually eliminated. Hence my hasty switch of allegiance.

Imagine my surprise to find that the second team that I picked, purely because I liked their name, were actually a decent Portuguese Primeira Liga outfit who had all the credentials to go a long way in the competition. No pub team this lot – as proven by their progress to date.

With victories over Celje of Slovenia (3 – 1), Djurgården of Sweden (2 – 1) and Mladá Boleslav of the Czech Republik (2 – 1) and a 1 – 1 draw with Astana in Kazakhstan, “Os Conquistadores” (the Conquerors) sat proudly ahead of last Thursday’s matches in third place in the Conference League table, two points below Chelsea and Legia Warszawa.

Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, in 25th place in the Conference League standings with only four points, provided the latest opposition for the Brunos on Thursday night. Billing itself as the oldest football club in continental Europe, the club was founded on 19 April 1879 after an advert was placed in the local newspaper calling a meeting with a view to starting a football club. This was inspired in part by the driving force of young English scholars attending local secular and ecclesiastical schools.

St Gallen is a large town of 167,000 people in NE Switzerland. It has a rich cultural heritage and has a university with one of Europe’s leading Business Schools.

In the early days of the club, the English connection was strong and four of their first recorded managers, between 1912 and 1951, were English, with two being of some interest. Blackburn born William Townley, manager twice during the 1920s, scored the first ever FA Cup final hat-trick which helped his home town team to beat The Wednesday 6 – 1.

The second, some might say less auspicious, claim to fame was Bob Kelly. A Mancunian, he held the British transfer record when he moved from Burnley to Sunderland for a King’s ransom of £6,550 in 1925. The sort of coup (and spending power these days!) that the current denizens of the Stadium of Light can only dream of!

The current St Gallen manager is a German, Enrico Maaßen, the English connection having long gone. Over the years the club has not been particularly successful, having won the Swiss Super League twice – in 1903–04 and 1999–2000. They currently sit in 8th place with 17 games played.

Their nickname is “Espen”, a reference to their long-term home ground the Espenmoos which, in 1912, staged Switzerland’s first international – a 2-1 defeat by Germany. It now hosts St Gallen’s women’s and under-21 teams. The senior side having moved to the purpose built, 19,694 capacity AFG Arena which, before the 2016-17 season, was renamed Kybunpark.

If the game was a sell-out then the bar Gallus, on Metzgergasse, in the bar zone, would have been the best option to watch the match. It offers anyone watching a whole St Gallen game on the big screen a free drink if the “Green-and-Whites” win. I don’t remember the Black Bull doing that. Actually, I’m not sure that they even had a TV back in my time!

No worries for the bar owners on Thursday night, however. In a hard fought and sometimes tetchy match, the Brunos ran out 4 – 1 winners (although St Gallen did win the yellow card count 5 – 4, I doubt that qualified anyone for a free pint). Goals for Os Conquistadors from João Mendez, Gustavo Silva, Alberto Baio and Samu – Kevin Csoboth with a solitary reply from the home team. The Kings go marching on!

On Friday morning the table made excellent reading for “nos rapazes” (our lads) who now sit happily in second place in the table – just below our usurpers in the competition. Chelsea enjoyed a 3 – 1 win over Astana of Kazakhstan whereas “we” only drew there. Hence Chelsea are top of the table on a maximum 15 points with Victoria Guimaraes a mere two points behind them. Legia Warszawa having lost 2-1 at home to Lugano, helping the Brunos into second spot.

I very much doubt that there will be any change in status after the final group stage matches this Thursday (19th Dec), at least not where Chelsea are concerned. They entertain the mighty Shamrock Rovers at Stamford Bridge, whilst Victoria Guimaraes travel to meet much stiffer opposition in Fiorentina. The Florentine club are third in the table, having lost one game to APOEL of Cyprus. I can only assume that the APOEL manager was fortunate enough to spend some time and get a few pointers from John Carver during his riotous time at Omonia Nicosia!

At the end of this league phase, the top eight ranked teams will receive a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th are eliminated from the competition.

The ludicrously long drawn out competition will move into play-offs for the round of 16 in February with the Round of 16 knock-out phase taking place in March. The Final will be held at the Wroclaw Stadium, Wroclaw, Poland on the 28th May, 2025.