We’ve got Brugge again, and this time we’re at home.
Barely a week later and we’re playing Brugge once more. We’re 3-1 up from the first leg which means it should be a bit of an easy one but this is the Villa so there’ll be no complacency and a fair bit of apprehension.
You should know the drill by now. They’ll bring a couple of thousand and they’ll be hanging round Broad Street and up town, seeing the sights and comparing their city to ours. They’ve got the most celebrated brewing traditions in the world, with bars selling hundreds of the finest beers known to man; we’ve got the Square Peg. They have any number of pavement stalls selling moule & frite; we’ve got Big John’s. They’ve got shop after shop devoted to the manufacture and purveyance of high-quality chocolate; we’ve got CadburyWorld. You get the picture. But we’ve got more canals than them.
Then they’ll march from town, which should take about four hours, and by the time they stagger into Witton Lane they’ll be too knackered to wave flags, shout, scream and let off flares. Our Big Flag in the Holte will be another celebration of our glorious and unique culture. Glenn Whelan kicking a cabbage over the bar should do it.
I suppose they’ll have much the same team as last week. Every member of their backroom staff is Belgian, which means they’re either totally confident about their nation’s superiority in football management or they’re too skint to bring anyone else in. They’ve probably made a few bob from being in the Champions League this season, but not after tonight. This is where their Euro-adventure ends. With a bit of luck we’ll have a couple of our recently-missing back and with a bit more luck the team will end the match unscathed and in the Champions League quarter-finals, which isn’t a bad place to be. Then get saving for your next ticket.
