Club Brugge vs Anderlecht

Newly-crowned Belgium First Division A champions Club Brugge will lock horns with bitter rivals Anderlecht at the Jan Breydel Stadion on the final day of the season.

Club Brugge came from a 1-0 half-time deficit to beat Antwerp 3-1 on the road last time out and extend their winning play-off streak to three matches. More importantly, a stunning comeback at Antwerp has secured the 18th top-flight title for Brugge and the third on the trot, establishing them as the supreme power in Belgium’s elite competition. Alfred Schreuder’s men will be poised to finish the season on a high and dispatch arch-rivals Anderlecht following three consecutive H2H league draws, including a ‘nil-nil’ stalemate in their most recent meeting. That prospect is well in the realm of possibility, as the ‘Blauw-Zwart’ have won their last six home league matches since a 2-1 defeat to Gent in early February, keeping four clean sheets in the process.

In the meantime, Anderlecht have had to settle for a sub-par Europa Conference League finish following a troublesome play-off campaign, which culminated with a 2-0 home defeat to Jupiler Pro League runners-up Royale Union Saint-Gilloise last time out. Before losing to the surprise top-flight package, Anderlecht had been on a three-game unbeaten league streak (W2, D1), keeping a couple of clean sheets in that sequence. However, since a dismal scoreless draw at Leuven in late February, Vincent Kompany’s men have alternated between victories (2) and defeats (2) in their last four away league fixtures, highlighting their well-documented lack of consistency. Interestingly, each of Anderlecht’s last two Jupiler Pro League matches on hostile turf have yielded multi-goal margins (W1, L1), with the winner on the day netting 3+ goals on both occasions.