History

Gent are one of the oldest clubs in Belgium. The club was founded in 1864, while its football department was created in 1900. Despite their long history, Gent have only managed to win the league championship once, in the 2014-15 season, while they have won the Belgian Cup three times (1964, 1984, 2010).

In European competitions, the Belgians have a long history, mainly in the UEFA Cup and later in the Europa League, while their most important success was in 1991 when they reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, where they were eliminated by Ajax.

Also worth mentioning are Gent’s two appearances in finals of the Intertoto Cup in 2006 and 2007.

Route to the UECL Round of 16

Gent finished last season in 7th place in the Belgian league during the regular season and entered the Play Offs for the position in the UEFA Europa Conference League. The Belgians changed the format of their league last year, including only the first four teams in the group to decide the champions.

Gent managed to win their group and get a ticket for the newly-formed Europa Conference League. They began in the 2nd qualifying round, where they faced Valerenga, whom they defeated 4-0 at home before losing 2-0 away, going through on aggregate. They then eliminated Riga, grinding out the qualification since they drew 2-2 at home and won 1-0 in Latvia to get a ticket to the Play Offs.

Rakov Chekhov also proved to be a tough opponent and won the first game 1-0 in Poland, but Gent turned the tie around and qualified for the group stage.

There they faced Flora Tallinn, Partizan and Anorthosis and managed to win the group, qualifiying directly to the Round of 16 with four wins, one draw and one defeat.

The coach

Hein Vanhaezebrouck is perhaps the most successful coach in Gent’s history and the only man who has guided the club to a title in their 122 years of existence.

After a long spell with Kortrijk, the Belgian coach took over at Gent in 2014, and remained for three seasons. In 2017 he went to Anderlecht, before then being out of work for a stint. In 2020, he then returned to the club where he grew up.

The squad

Quality, youth, talent, experience, and strength. At first glance, Gent seems full of all of the above.

The team’s major protagonist this season is the 28-year-old winger Tariq Tissoudali. He is the top scorer in all competitions with 20 goals and 7 assists from 40 games. Although he was born in Amsterdam, he is an international with Morocco, with whom he has already made four appearances.

The 33-year-old striker Laurent Depoitre is also having an excellent season with eight goals in 34 matches. The captain of the team is the well-known-in-Greek-circles Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, who played with Olympiacos in the 2017-18 season, while he has also played against PAOK with Club Brugge in the 2011-12 season in the UEFA Europa League group stage.