Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: Club Bruges 0-0 AEK Athens, Thursday 17th August 2017

Friday, 18 August 2017

Club Bruges 0-0 AEK Athens, Thursday 17th August 2017

Club Bruges 0-0 AEK Athens (Europa League Play-off, 1st leg, att. 27,115)

Welcome to ...

5 games in 5 countries in 5 days. I hadn't planned it that way, it just happened to be I had to get from Poland to Amsterdam to meet the better half. On this journey I've seen Korona Kielce (Poland), Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic), Kapfenberger SV (Austria) and Schwarz-Weiss Essen (Germany). Now it's Club Brugge in the first leg of a Europa league play-off against AEK Athens.

I got to the stadium with an hour to kick-off, a walk of a couple of miles or so from the city centre. Not ideally situated and nor is it particularly close to the railway station, though it is in the ‘burbs and closer to some main roads, so perhaps ideal for locals in cars, or on bikes.

Heading out of the city centre.

I was here in Euro 2000, seeing France v the Czechs in the so-called ‘Group of Death’, Nedved lifting his head from his prone position to see the penalty he won dispatched. I also remember in a crowd of 30-odd thousand, there must have been 10000 English, all soaking up the atmosphere (while ‘proper’ England fans wrecked Charleroi). Ahhhh….those were the days.

One of Club's 'cooler' players commemorated on a lamppost.

Indeed, I recollect how concrete, how tired the stadium looked. Think Hillsborough. Little has changed, apart from it being 17 years later. Still, once you're inside it's quite impressive (think Hillsborough). Four large two-tier stands, no overhanging upper tier, instead a wall separates the lower and upper tier. But what I like about the Jan Breydel is that the highest parts of the stadium are its corners, which jut out into the sky. There's something a little odd about being able to look down on the roof of the Main Stand. Mind, it is breezier and chillier up here and, unlike the rest of the stadium, there's no cover.

The NW corner.

AEK fans were in the south-east corner and they brought a few, around 1000. Maybe the economic situation in Greece is improving or they are making the most of perhaps their last European venture this season. Whatever, they looked in good spirits occasionally bouncing en masse. 1st half, I was in the same end, so I couldn't really hear them. In the second half I sat on the northwest corner, as far from them as I could be, so I still couldn't really hear them above the home end.

AEK players applaud their fans at full-time.

Ah yes, my choice of seat. So I walked up to a ticket booth and was accosted by some young lad of about 20. Him and his mate had bought tickets in the south stand but wanted to be nearer the ultras (in the North End). The club wouldn't let them swap their tickets, a very poor show. Was I bothered where I sat? Well, I wasn't really, so thought I'd do them a good deed and bought one of their tickets. Didn't they have a bigger problem now - they had two tickets, one for either end? Little did they know that once inside you could go anywhere you liked.

Back of the zuid (south) stand.

I didn't bother finding my exact seat, just climbed high up somewhere behind the goal. I didn't see anybody else check their tickets either, suggesting a laissez-faire attitude to where folk sat (it was by no means full). I was in the end that traditionally houses Cercle Brugge when they’re at home, smaller of the two teams which share the Jan Breydal. I wonder what sort of crowds they are getting these days. Aren’t they stuck in the second tier?

Match action

I tried not to be in the stadium too early, but I needed the loo. Outside, I'd had a ‘braadwurst’, which tasted more like the kind of sausage street vendors ply in London i.e not great. I'd have had a beer too, were it not for them operating some kind of voucher system. It's even reached beer gardens. Who will rid me of this plague?

Looking towards the Oost Tribune (East Stand), pre-match.

Then there was the match. I'm not sure I've seen a team get into so many promising positions without creating anything as Bruges. Time and again they were free out wide, time and again they dinked a ball gently into the middle for the keeper to catch, or a defender to head clear. Fortunately, there was half-time for the coach to have a word and have the team try something different. He didn't.

By half-time AEK should have been out of sight. For all the possession they ceded, they ripped Bruges apart every time they broke. If they had someone who could finish they’d be dangerous. 0-3 would have been a fair reflection, but it could have been 5.

Almost looks like something's about to happen...

Second half, Club dominated and AEK retreated into their half. No chances, but the ref decided to help out by sending an Athens player off (foul, second yellow). Now we’d really see what an average side Club are as they passed it around at a pedestrian pace, moves breaking down every time they made the box. They had one chance, as a cut back (a cut back! Something different!) found an advancing player just inside the box but the shot was blocked. I still can't remember the AEK keeper making a save, least nothing worthwhile. Bruges will have to do a hell of a lot better than this to progress. (As it was, they lost the second leg 0-3.)

The view from the NW corner, 2nd half.

Then I got lost walking back to Bruges city centre. When you've walked for nearly an hour and then see a sign saying ‘Bruges 2’, you know you've gone wrong somewhere and yet that sign was my saviour. At least I knew which direction to walk now.

The Damage:

€15 ent

€4 braadwurst

= €19

The Tunes:
The Campfire Headphase (Boards of Canada)
Mogwai Young Team (Mogwai)
Translucent Flashbacks (Spacemen 3)
Greatest Hits (Goldie Lookin’ Chain)
Timeless (Goldie)
Original Pirate Material (The Streets)
N.W.A. Legacy (N.W.A.)