Villarreal will fight against a historic European side for a place in the quarter-finals of the Conference League
Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht is a Belgian football club from the municipality of Anderlecht, Belgium, founded in 1908. Known under the nickname Les Mauves et Blancs (the violet and whites), the Belgian club competes in the Jupiter Pro-League, where they are currently in tenth place.
RSC Anderlecht are the most successful team in Belgium. They have a total of 34 league titles to their name, with the 2016/17 season being the last one they won, as well as nine Belgian Cups and 13 Belgian Super Cups. Furthermore, they are the Belgian club with the most international titles: two European Cup Winners’ Cups (75/76 and 77/78), two European Super Cups (76/77 and 78/79) and one UEFA Cup (82/83) are the European trophies that the historic Belgian team has won throughout its history.
Players such as Jan Vertonghen, Slimani and Yari Verschaeren stand out in the ranks of the Belgian team. Other big names in the world of football have also worn the purple and white, such as Romelu Lukaku and Vincent Kompany.
Their head coach, Brian Riemer, took over in December 2022. Riemer, a 44-year-old Dane, was Brentford’s assistant head coach from 2018 until 2022. He has also coached at youth level at FC Kopenhagen, Hvidovre IF and Norwich City.
This Thursday at 6.30pm CET at the Anderlecht Stadium will be an unprecedented match. In fact, Villarreal CF have only faced a Belgian side once before. That was against Brugge in the UEFA Europa League group stage of the 2010/11 season and the Submarine won both matches 2-1 and 1-2 respectively.
RSC Anderlecht’s road to the Round of 16
RSC Anderlecht came through a group stage in which they were drawn against Silkeborg, Steaua and West Ham. The Brussels-based side earned a total of eight points to finish second in Group C, but did not earn the Purple and Whites a direct place in the last 16, having to play a preliminary round tie against Ludogorets, whom they eventually eliminated after coming from 1-0 down in the first leg to win 2-1 at home and a great penalty shoot-out in which goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was the team’s hero, saving three penalties.
