Not many people outside Belgium may have known the club who knocked out Union Berlin in the Round of 16 in the Europa League. After a 3-3 draw in Berlin, Saint-Gilloise won the second leg in Belgium 3-0. Both clubs met in the group stage. Union Berlin lost 1-0 at home and won by the same margin in Belgium. Saint-Gilloise won the group ahead of Union Berlin plus Sporting Braga (Portugal) and Malmö FF (Sweden).
Union Saint-Gilloise is based in the capital Brussels in the districts of Saint-Gilles/Saint Gillis and Forest/Vorst. Over the course of its history of over 100 years, the club has been as far down as the fourth division. Saint-Gilloise have only been playing at the top of Belgian football again for a few years. They were promoted to the top-flight in 2020/21 after a gap of over 50 years – and only just missed out on winning the league title in their first season. Saint-Gilloise finished top of the table with 77 points. However, because the top four teams in the Jupiter Pro League play-off for the championship, Club Brugge ended up winning the title.
The rise of Saint-Gilloise from the lower levels of Belgian football is closely linked to investment from two millionaires. The German businessman Jürgen Baatzsch joined the club as president in 2015. Three years later, the English businessman Tony Bloom took over the majority stake of the German. Bloom is also a shareholder and board member of the Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion.
On the pitch, a former player at SV Meppen played a big part in the rapid rise of USG. Deniz Undav made a major contribution to winning the second division with 17 goals in the 2020/21 season and he scored 25 goals in their first season in the Jupiter Pro League. Since the summer of 2022, the striker from Achen near Bremen has been playing for Brighton & Hove Albion. And the successful coach Felipe Mazzu, who won promotion with the club and took them up to the runners-up spot, left USG in 2022 for local rivals RSC Anderlecht. Since the summer of last year, Karel Geraerts has been the head coach at Union Saint-Gilloise.
USG are playing in Europe for the first time in their history. Their group games in the Europa League were played at the King Power at Den Dreef Stadium in Leuven. The home ground of the club, the Stade Joseph Marien, does not comply with requirements set by UEFA. The second leg of the Round of 16 game against Union Berlin was played at the Lotto Park in Brussels, the stadium where Anderlecht play their home games.
The current squad at Union Saint-Gilloise has players from 14 different countries including the German striker Dennis Eckert Ayensa, who joined the Belgian club in the summer of 2022 from FC Ingolstadt.
In mid-August, the Werkself will set off on a four-day trip to England to play their final two friendly matches of the 2026/27 pre-season against Premier League clubs Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United. The match in Nottingham against the Tricky Trees is on Wednesday 12 August at 20:45 CEST (19:45 BST) at the City Ground. The game against the Magpies in Newcastle is on Saturday 15 August at 16:00 CEST (15:00 BST) at the atmospheric St James’ Park. Details on ticket sales for both matches.
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Black and Red talent development at the highest level – even off the pitch: Apprentices Jule Suermann, Leandra Bellia and Julia Niederheide have successfully completed their two- or three-year apprenticeships at the club. Bayer 04 honoured the trio at the BayArena on Tuesday.
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The Germany U19 team were beaten 2-0 by record champions Spain in the final of the U19 European Championship in Wales. Bayer 04 players Montrell Culbreath and Francis Onyeka (on loan at SV 07 Elversberg) were in the starting line-up and played the full 90 minutes.
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Bayer 04 Women have boosted their firepower with the signing of Poland international Paulina Tomasiak. The 24-year-old striker moves to Leverkusen from Gornik Leczna in her homeland on a two-year contract.
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