Club Brugge - Lens    (won)

Reasoning: Brugge are performing in much the same way they always do when they qualify for the Champions League.. Very intense pressing and highly combative football. This resulted in them beating Inter at the San Siro, scoring 4(!) goals, while at home they suffered a painful defeat against Aston Villa despite putting in a good performance, and their goalscoring was not a problem there either, as they scored 2 goals.. I have no reason to believe that Brugge will take their foot off the gas. They have a strong team, plenty of confidence, and they have had enough time to recover for this match..

The situation is different for the French side, who are playing matches every 3 days. This will be their 4th(!) match in 12 days, which is quite demanding for a team that is not used to this kind of schedule. On top of that, their biggest pillar in defence, Sarr (defender – 33/0), left the club during the summer, and now Ganiou (defender – 5/1), Gradit (defender – 3/0) and Nawrocki (defender – 3/0) have all picked up injuries as well, which is a painful blow. And looking at the fact that their replacements are averaging ratings of around 5.5–6.5 per match, I don’t see how they will be able to stop the Belgians’ dangerous attacks with sufficient efficiency!

At the same time, Edouard, Ivanovic, Sotoca and Thauvin should be capable of getting into a position at some point during the 90 minutes where they can take a chance and convert it.. I’m expecting a high-tempo match, but in my opinion, Lens could be the side to crumble first.