Waasland-Beveren vs Club Brugge Predictions

It was close, though Club Brugge were unable to retain the title that they won so easily the season before, as they finished two points behind Genk last time around. Under the man that took Genk to the title last season, the side from the Belgian capital will be hoping to make a winning start to the new campaign as they look to regain their crown.

Last season didn’t exactly go swimmingly for Waasland, as they finished the regular campaign just one place above the drop-zone, though they remained in the division. They also avoided finishing bottom of their group once the league split. Given that they’re operating on one of the lowest budgets in the division, such a season was far from disappointing.

This time around, manager Adnan Custovic will be looking for further progress. During the off-season, Waasland have made a couple of eye-catching additions, bringing in promising youngster Aboubakary Koita, who created a positive impression for both Gent and Kortrijk last season, chipping in with four assists and two goals in less than 900 minutes of football. They’ve also added experienced right-back Andreas Wiegel from Duisburg, while Xian Emmers has joined on loan from Inter Milan.

Unfortunately, the quality added has been offset somewhat by the departures of Nana Ampomah and Aleksandar Boljevic, both of whom were influential last season.

As for Brugge, who only really needed to strengthen slightly, it’s been a slightly negative window. Key player Wesley has gone to Aston Villa, while first-choice centre-back Stefano Denswil has also left for pastures new. The transfer window remains open, though so far, the title hopefuls have had a bit of an underwhelming window in terms of incoming players. They’ve taken a punt on young forward David Okereke from Spezia in the Italian second division. Defensive duo Odilon Kossounou and Simon Deli have joined from Hammarby and Slavia Prague respectively.

With this being the first game of the season for both, there’s not a great deal to go on. Club Brugge are the bigger and better club; they came very close to retaining their title last season and are thus unsurprisingly red-hot favourites ahead of this match. Having said that, there are a few reasons as to why they may just be a tad on the short side.

In recent years, Club Brugge haven’t flourished at this venue; they lost when last visiting Freethiel Stadion, and they’ve won none of their last three away matches against Waasland. In fact, Saturday’s visitors haven’t really thrived in general against Beveren in recent times, as they’ve won just two of the last six.

If we add in the fact that Brugge come into this opening season without really replacing the two key players that left over the summer it’s easy to feel that they’re less likely to win than the current prices suggest, or at the very least they’re less likely to win as comfortably as the early betting would have us believe . On this basis, a small play on ‘Waasland +1 Handicap’ is warranted.