Hearts In Bruges

Football often throws up some odd quirks, but it was nice of UEFA to schedule things in such a way that I can reference the same movie in two consecutive blog titles!

Whilst Celtic took on Club Brugge last night at Celtic Park, Hearts are facing off against the city rivals Cercle Brugge in Belgium on match day four of the Conference League. Kick off is 5.45pm oor time and it’s live on TNT Sports 3.

Now, anyone who’s been paying attention to Scottish teams in Europe this season will be well aware of Cercle Brugge. After all, they did face Kilmarnock back in August in Europa League qualifying. The 1-0 win in Belgium courtesy of Thibo Somers in the second leg was the difference between the two sides and sent Kilmarnock into Conference League qualifying.

Cercle Brugge didn’t get much further though. In the very next round they met Molde and lost 3-1 on aggregate, dropping into Conference League qualifying themselves. There they met Wisla Krakow in the playoff round and in a very strange tie they won 6-1 in Poland, only to lose 4-1 in Belgium but still go through 7-5 on aggregate.

In the league phase, Cercle Brugge, like Hearts, are a pot four team and are currently fifteenth in the table. They started out with a 6-2 win over St Gallen from pot five. Alan Minda and a hat trick from Kevin Denkey had them 4-0 up before Kevin Csoboth pulled one back. Gary Magnee then scored two before Felix Mambimbi finished an eventful match. Shame I can’t find a video of it!

But then they lost 3-1 away to Vikingur Reykjavik from pot six. Kazeem Olaigbe, who got the goal at Rugby Park in the 1-1 draw there, had given Cercle the lead, but Ari Sigurpalsson quickly levelled. Danijel Djuric then missed a late first half penalty, before he later scored with quarter of an hour left to put Vikingur in front. Gunnar Vatnhamar them sealed the game a few minutes later. Can’t find a video of this one either.

Their last outing was a goalless draw away to LASK from pot one. This being the only one I can find a video of is slightly annoying. If only TNT Sports gave as much of a thought to the Europa and Conference League games as they do to the Champions League games, this would be far easier.

Hearts on the other hand are twelfth in the table, a point outside the straight to the last sixteen places, and two points clear in the seeded in the knockout round places. The started out with their 2-1 win away to Dinamo Minsk from pot six. Steven Alfred had given Minsk the lead, but a Sergei Politevich own goal levelled it before Yan Dhanda scored the winner with the last kick of the ball.

Hearts then followed that up with a 2-0 win at home against Omonia Nicosia from pot three. Alan Forrest and Blair Spittal scoring the goals in the first half.

Last time out though they lost 2-0 at home to Heidenheim from pot two. Sirlord Conteh and Jan Schoppner with the second half goals.

As noted back when they played Kilmarnock, Cercle Brugge haven’t played a Scottish side prior to this season.

Hearts have been to Belgium before though. Indeed, Hearts very first European tie back in the 1958/59 European Cup saw them face Standard Liege in the preliminary round. Unfortunately the 5-1 defeat in Belgium was their undoing in that tie. Ian Crawford actually scored first in that game. Willie Bauld’s two goals in the second leg at Tynecastle weren’t enough to undo the damage, especially as Standard Liege also scored. Can’t find a video of this, I’m sure Hearts fans will be glad to hear.

The 1961/62 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round also saw them go to Belgium to face Union Saint-Gilloise. This time a 3-1 win helped them advance to face Inter Milan in the next round. Camille van Vaerenberg had given Union the lead, but Bobby Blackwood quickly levelled and Norrie Davidson scored a goal in each half. Hearts also won the second leg at home 2-0, future Lisbon Lion Willie Wallace scoring the opening goal there with Robin Stenhouse getting the other goal. Can’t find footage of this one either.

Standard Liege were once again the opponents in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup second round. Unfortunately for Hearts, both games finished 1-0 to Standard Liege. Marc Wilmots getting the goal in the game in Belgium. Here’s a fairly lengthy video about the game in Belgium.

So hopefully the lose-win-lose pattern continues here and Hearts win the next one!

Cercle Brugge are third bottom of the the Belgian First Division, two points behind OH Leuven and a point ahead of Kortrijk after fifteen games. On Saturday they lost 1-0 away to Standard Liege. This coming Sunday they travel to Beerschot.

Hearts are second bottom of the Premiership, three points behind Kilmarnock and a point ahead of Hibernian. On Saturday they lost 4-1 at home to Celtic. On Sunday they host Aberdeen.

Once Hearts are finished, TNT Sports 3 moves on to Rangers’ trip to France where they’ll be the only Scottish club side not face a team from Brugge in European competition this week. Kick off against Nice is 8pm oor time.

Nice, a pot four team, have yet to win in the Europa League. Their two points from the first four games sees them down in thirty first place. They started pretty well, drawing 1-1 at home against Real Sociedad from pot two. Pablo Rosario cancelling out Ander Barrenetxea’s opener.

But then lost 4-1 away to Lazio from pot one. Pedro Rodriguez and Valentin Castellanos giving the hosts a two goal lead before Jeremie Boga pulled a goal back. Castellanos scored again in the second half before Mattia Zaccagni finished the job.

That was then followed by a 1-0 defeat away to Ferencvaros from pot two thanks to a Moise Bambino own goal. Pablo Rosario was sent off late on too.

Last time out, Nice drew 2-2 at home with fellow pot four team FC Twente. Daan Rots scored early for the visitors before former Rangers player Sam Lammers made it two after an hour. But Jeremie Boga scored a few minutes later to pull a goal back. Sofiane Diop then got sent off for Nice, but Mohamed-Ali Cho scored a late equaliser just before Bart van Rooij was sent off for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Rangers , a pot one team, are up in tenth spot with seven points from their four games. That’s two points behind the last sixteen places, but only one point ahead of the non-seeded knockout round places. These leagues are very tight!

Rangers’ competition started with a the 2-0 win away to Malmo from pot threee. Nedim Bajrami in the opening minute was joined on the scoresheet late on by Ross McCausland.

But was followed up by the 4-1 defeat at home to Lyon from pot two. Malick Fofana’s opener was cancelled out by Tom Lawrence, only for Alexandre Lacazette to put Lyon back in front. Lacazette scored again just before half time, and Fofana got his second soon after half time.

Rangers bounced back with a 4-0 win at home against FCSB from pot four. Tom Lawrence was again on the scoresheet, with Vaclav Cerny getting goals either side of half time and Hamza Igamane getting Rangers’ fourth.

Last time out, Rangers drew 1-1 away to Olympiakos from pot two. Ayoub El Kaabi opened the scoring in the second half, but it didn’t last long as Cyriel Dessers equalised a few minutes later.

Nice have faced Scottish opposition twice before, the first of which was Rangers in the 1956/57 European Cup first round. The game in France was a 2-1 win for Nice Johnny Hubbard’s opening penalty for Rangers turned around in the second half, and since the game in Scotland was the same the other way it took a playoff to separate the teams, which Nice won 3-1 and even the Rangers goal was an own goal. Can’t find any footage of any of these games though.

Nice also met Kilmarnock in the 1997/98 Cup Winners’ Cup first round. Again, Nice won the game in France, this time 3-1, Paul Wright with a penalty for the Kilmarnock goal, and progressed through to the next round as the game in Scotland was a 1-1 draw.

As mentioned when Rangers played Lyon, there’s been a lot of visits to France over the years! That previous Nice tie was Rangers very first in Europe, and the following 1957/58 season saw them in France again where they lost 2-1 to St Etienne, Davie Wilson levelling the game for Rangers at the time. But the 3-1 win at Ibrox saw them through that tie.

The 1961/62 European Cup preliminary round saw Rangers win both legs against Monaco 3-2. The game in France saw Jim Baxter open the scoring, with Alex Scott getting the other two goals whilst Monaco came from two down to level at two all in between those. I can only find this from the game in Scotland though.

The 1971/72 Cup Winners’ Cup triumph may have culminated in Barcelona, but it started in France as Rangers drew 1-1 with Rennes. Willie Johnston levelling the game in the second half after Philippe Redon’s opener.

St Etienne once again beat Rangers in the 1975/76 European Cup second round, winning the game in France 2-0.

If you want a link to Brugge for Rangers, then the 1992/93 Champions League group stage is where you’ll find it. As mentioned yesterday, they faced Club Brugge in that group, but Rangers also faced eventual winners Marseille in that group stage, drawing both games against them with the game in France finishing 1-1. Ian Durrant scoring in the second half to cancel out Franck Sauzee’s opener.

Rangers also met French opponents in the 1996/97 Champions League group stage, losing 2-1 to Auxerre home and away. Richard Gough’s goal in France brought Rangers back into after they had found themselves two goals down, but it wasn’t enough to get anything from the game.

The 1997/98 UEFA Cup first round tie against Strasbourg saw Rangers lose both legs 2-1. In France, Jorge Albertz levelled the game from the penalty spot just after half time but clearly they still went on to lose.

Back in the Champions League group stage in 2000/01, Rangers faced Monaco and won 1-0 in… well, Monaco because that’s not actually France but it still counts. Giovanni van Bronckhorst got the early goal that day.

The 2001/02 UEFA Cup third round saw Rangers have goalless draws home and away with PSG, the game in Paris going all the way to a penalty shootout that Rangers won 4-3. Fun fact, Mauricio Pochettino was the man to miss that last PSG penalty whilst PSG’s Mikael Arteta scored his! Oh, and some boy called Ronaldinho also scored his.

The 2004/05 and 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stages both paired Rangers with Auxerre. The former only had a game at Ibrox which Auxerre won, whilst the latter had a 2-2 draw in France. Twice Rangers came from behind with goals from Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd.

The 2021/22 Europa League group stage saw Rangers’ last visit to France when they travelled to Lyon, where they got a 1-1 draw. Scott Wright’s opener cancelled out unfortunately by a Calvin Bassey own goal.

Nice are currently fifth in Ligue 1 after twelve games, twelve points behind leaders PSG but a point ahead of Lyon. At this point it’s worth remembering that RB Leipzig are ahead of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, so the domestic table isn’t always a good indicator of what might happen – ask Celtic! Besides, Leipzig didn’t have a decent record in the League Phase either.

On Sunday, Nice won 2-1 at home against Strasbourg. They travel to face Lyon this coming Sunday.

Rangers are currently third in the Premiership after twelve games, eleven points behind leaders Celtic and eight points behind second place Aberdeen. On Saturday they drew 1-1 at home against Dundee United. They travel to St Johnstone this coming Sunday.

Good luck to both Hearts and Rangers tonight!