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Confidis Cup Sixth Round Preview

KVC Westerlo' game against Anderlecht in the Confidis Belgian Cup is set to be a sell-out with supporters clambering to see players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Modric and David Luiz.

Over 8,000 tickets are expected to be sold for the match which means it will be a complete sell out. Pundits will say that Westerlo will have no chance but they have no lost in there last 4 matches and with Anderlecht struggling for form a little bit after being thrashed by Real Madrid's effective B side after they had all there players released it is understood that Del Piero will NOT give any rest to any player now like he was going to.

We are however giving the match to Anderlecht and it should be about 6 or 7-0 but we will go for a 2-1 victory for Paars-Wit.

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It has been a very busy Summer Transfer window in Europe where players like Carlos Fierro, Rasmus Elm and Memphis Depay have left there clubs for pasteurs new.




We start with the biggest transfer of the window first and that is Italian Domenico Crisito moving from Zenit in Russia to Belgians Club Brugge. This is a big transfer for the Belgians as Crisito, who is capped by the Italians 20 times signs for £21,500,000 rejected offers from Slovenia, Slovakia and Serbia to move to Brugge and he can not wait to play for them.


Domenico Crisito will now play in Belgium with Club Brugge

Carlos Fierro is the next man in focus as he completed a big money £20,500,000 move from Chivas to Belarussian side Naftan for a mega £20,500,000. This is a big statement by the Belarus side by signing 'one of the brightest prospects in world football' according to the chairman Lenod Polipskiy.


Naftan beleive they have a star of the fute in Fierro

Ajax have been a side who has sold A LOT of players this window due to there Dutch league's drop in the rankings of the leagues. They lost nine top players to Belgian clubs including Viktor Fischer and Ricardo Van Rhijn to Lierse and Tobias Sana and Davy Klaasen to Charleroi but the big loss was Stefano Denswil to KV Kortrijk for £18,250,000.


Vikto Fischer has moved from Holland to Belgium to play for Lierse

PSV did not get away lightly either with Memphis Depay moving to Genk for £8,750,000 and Georgino Wijnaldum moving to Lokeren for £7,750,000. The move of the window for Viktoria Plzen of Czech Republic was Zakaria Bakkali moving there for just £5,000,000 and Tim Matavz left for Austria and Salzberg for £7,000,000


Bakkali will now play in Plzen in the Czech Republic

Other moves saw Dundee United take Callum Mcmanaman for £6,500,000 from Wigan and it see's a lot of English guys heading north to Scotland, and while we are on Scotland Junior Hoillett signed for Dundee United too. The bigest move in Scotland was St. Mirren for money moves and that was Unai Lopez moving from Athletic Bilboa for £6,500,000 and Liam Moore moving to St. Johnstone for £6,000,000.


St. Mirren pulled off the best Scottish transfer by landing Unai Lopez from Athletic Bilboa

In Austria Wienar Neustadt signed Dennis Praet from Anderlecht for £15,000,000 and also signed Doria from Botofago for £14,500,000. The only other transfer of note was the Tim Matavz deal to move to Salzberg for £7,000,000.

In Belarus the Fierro and Mangala deals stand out above anything else. Fierro has already been featured but the Mangala deal from Porto to BATE for just £7,500,000 is a huge deal for the Belarus Champions and he will want to perform well for his new club.

In Bulgaria Otavio is the main headline after moving from International to Cherno More for £8,500,000. The Brazilian, who is capped at U20 level 3 times will at 18 be a star in the Bulgarian league in years to come if they can hold on to him. The other big move was Rasmus Elm moving to Ludogarets for £9,750,000 from CSKA Moscow, Ludogarets have really worked hard this window and I think it will really pay off.


Otavio will play for Cherno More this season

In Croatia it has been really quiet but Dinamo found £5,750,000 to buy Filip Krovinovic from Zagreb. The 18 year old is into his second professional season and is tipped as a star of the future.

In the Czech republic Bakkali and Grimaldo are the two stand out moves. Belgian Bakkali, at 17 moves to Viktoria Plzen for £5,000,000 and it is deemed that Plzen have an exceptional talent at the disposal now. Alex Gimaldo leaves Barcelona for just £4,100,000 to join Sparta Prague and it should be between these two teams for the title now.


Alex Grimaldo leaves Spain and Barcelona for Sparta Prague

In Greece it was all about 1 team, PAOK who signed Maicon, Eduardo and Gillet from Lokomotive Moscow, Shakhtar and Anderlecht respectively. PAOK along with the free signings have an excellent squad now.


Maicon moves to Greece to play for PAOK

In Switzerland, Zurich paid Porto £9,000,000 for Rodrigo. The Spanish striker, 22 becomes the most expensive player in Zurich's history and he can only go on to great things.

In Turkey Silvestre Verela becomes Gaziantespor's record signing after he moved from Porto for £8,000,000. The Portugese attacking midfielder spent 5 years at the Portugese club and it is thought that he wil be important for Gaziantespor this season.


Verela becomes Turkish side Gaziantespor's record signing

In Ukraine, Vorskla were the most busy with 3 big signings including breaking there transfer record on Eugene Makarenko from Dynamo Kyiv for £7,250,000 and they followed this signing up with two more, Cosmin Matai from Romanian side Dinamo Bucherest and Dentinho from Shakhtar.


Makarenko becomes Vorskle's record signing too by signing from Dynamo Kyiv

So as you can see there has been a lot of action this window and in January I expect it to intensify even more.

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September Update

September was a great month in the Belgian Pro League with four wins out of four. The team performed well and there only blip was against a VERY weak Real Madrid side who totally outplayed the team of Superstars. More to come on that soon.



Anderlecht started the month against Gent at the Vanden Stock Stadium and Gent really gave a great performance. they are a side that did not take advantage of the World's free player sbut in Marveaux they have a good player.

Mitrovic, it was though for the host's who was getting his first appearance of the season and he was played through by the impressive Kouyate and there was Mitrovic running through to dink it over the keeper and make it 1-0. Marveaux though struck Gent back on level terms with an excellant free-kick which flew into the top right corner.

Gent had a lot of possession and looked the most like scoring so when Kouyate made it 2-1 to Paars-Wit it was against the run of play. Ronaldo had crossed the ball, Lampard headed over but it forced a corner in which Lampard took himself and it landed right on the head of Kouyate. Anderlecht held on to claim a 2-1 victory.



Real Madrid then played host to Anderlecht in what was deemed a easy match for them. Real Madrid had a team of youngsters and Allessandro Del Piero played Ronaldo, Griezmann, Ibrahimovic and Luiz.

Real Madrid started so brightly and shocked Anderlecht with 4 shots in the first 15 minutes. It was however on the 26th minute that 23 year old Miguel Angel Guerrero struck from 25 yards out, what was an unstoppable shot that the keeper Courtois just did not move and it was 1-0. This should have shocked Anderlecht into life but it really did not and in added time of the first half it was 2-0. Guerrero, who went on to claim man of the match fed Sastre on the right who delivered a pinpoint cross onto the head of Jose who rose higher than Luiz to make it 2-0 with a bullet header.

Anderlecht we awful in the second half and Jose and Borja should have scored one each but it did not matter and Real Madrid went on to record a famous victory.



After the embarressing result in the Champions League Del Piero refused to rest any of his players and told them to go and restore some pride and that they did that in the first half when in just the 2nd minute Cristiano Ronaldo scored an amazing 20 yard free kick after Negrado was bought down. Ronaldo then doubled the lead with a jinking run and finish and the match against Real Madrid is surely out of mind now. Sanchez and Alves made it 3 and 4-0 respectively before half time. Emund got a double in the second half for Beveren but Anderlecht were not really tested at all after that.



In the Cup t'kuipje played host to Anderleacht and it was 2-0 before half time with Giroud and Negredo making it 2-0 after just 14 minutes and when Giroud made it 3-0 it looked like a cricket score was on the way. Vandenbergh scored for the hosts to make it 3-1 but one minute later Neymar, a late sub took just 5 minutes to score and record a 4-1 Victory for Paars-Wit.



Anderlecht then played Standard Liege in what should have been a close match because Standard had aquired players well in Huntelaar, Debuchy, Aaron Lennon and Kaboul.

Del Piero changed things around a bit and put Griezmann, Volland, Delac and Ibrahimovic in and it all paid dividends but the scoreline is very harsh on Standard who played there parts in an amazing match of football which saw Griezmann score his third hattrick in his short career so far.

Griezmann's first came in the 11th minute with a stunning volley from a Ibrahimovic ball over the top. The in the 19th minute he struck an amazing freekick and they had Standard on the ropes. Five minutes later Neymar struck to make it 3-0 through great work up play by Jordi Alba, Griezmann and Eriksen to make it 3-0.

If you thought that Standard were out of it then you should think again because any side with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in will always be competitive and on the 37th minute he scored a great headed goal from an Aaron Lennon corner. Then in the second half Yassin Ayoub scored to make it 3-2 and make Anderlecht look very nervy. Huntelaar continued all game to challenge to get an equaliser but it was a quick attack where Griezmann had stayed up and he was one on one with the keeper and finally he put the game beyond doubt by winning a penalty and taking it to grab his hattrick. Ibrahimovic finished it off and a 5-2 victory.

League Table

Anderlecht stay ahead by 5 points, with Club Brugge and KV Kortrijk behind. It will be interesting to see what happens this month.

Player Of The Month

The wiley old fox Zlatan Ibrahimovic grabs the award this month and it is down to his intelligence on the pitch as to why people love playing in the same team/squad as him. It was close. It was close with Griezmann and Ronaldo but he just gets it.

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So nine games each, nine wins out of nine for Anderlecht and even wins, one draw and one defeat for Club Brugge.

Club Brugge have aquired players well too with Hugo Lloris, Christian Benteke, Theo Walcott and Dominico Criscito prove that it is not just Anderlecht that have done well in the post seasin in Belgium. And Brugge have started well this season and with Luuk de Jong and Christian Benteke scoring 12 goals between them this season. There only defeat this season was against Lierse, where they lost 6-3!

Anderlecht however have been faultless in the league but not indestructible. They have had tight victories against KV Kortijk, Standard and AA Gent.

It is set to be a sell-out with supporters clamouring to see their team at Stade Constant Vanden Stock.

Over 28,000 tickets are expected to be sold for the Belgian Pro League on Saturday, Anderlecht's home advantage gives them the edge in what should be a close encounter against Club Brugge.

Anderlecht have notched up nine straight wins and the title contenders occupy 1st place in the Pro League. Paars-wit know that regardless of the result, they will hold onto first place in the league for the time being.

Club Brugge themselves are on a seven match unbeaten run and the title contenders lie in 2nd place in the league.


Silvio Proto in action, has his say

Speaking to Gazet Van Antwerpen, former Anderlecht man Silvio Proto has recalled the importance of the Belgiische klassieker Derby to the clubs supporters. Proto stated the players have to realise just how much the match means to the fans.


Club favourite, Morten Olsen singles out Benteke as a threat

Anderlecht favourite Morten Olsen has singled out striker Christian Benteke as the Club Brugge player to watch out for in the forthcoming game, according to De Streekkrant.

Olsen declared that Paars-wit should get something out of this game provided they put the shackles on Club Brugge's main attacking threat.

Benteke has said he is highly ambitious and hopes he will learn a lot while at the club.

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Modric & Kagawa Want More Football

Kagawa speaks out with Modric about first team chances

When Luca Modric and Shinji Kagawa signed for Anderlecht, they both said in the press conference I know I have to fight for my place but then in a team of great players we know that is a given. So it was a bit of a shock this week when first Modric went to the media about his lack of first team action and he was then swiftly followed by Kagawa.

They both stated that they can not play for the club while Del Piero insists on Courtois being captain. in the press conference, which to Del Piero's disgust was called as a joint one by both of them to try and put pressure on the manager to pick them, Modric said When a player of my ability can not even make the bench for some games, you know there is something wrong. Thibaut is not ready to be a captain and Cristiano is not playing very well but still gets picked and this is not on. I feel my position has become untenable so the manager had better decide to play us or lose us.

Shinji Kagawa said pretty much the same thing. I echo what Luca said. I am far better than a bench player and I am playing better in training than the others that can play in my position so if Allessandro does not play me then he can lose me in the January window.

Do They Warrent A Place In The Side

So in the light of this press conference, we ask do they deserve to be starting? Lets start with Central Midfielder Luca Modric.


Lampard on for this season

Modric has 6 appearances this season, which is infact over half of all the games that Anderlecht has played in the Pro League but only has one goal and one assist to his name which is a really poor show by the Croatian. His rivals for that position however have fared a lot better. Will Hughes, a £10m signing from Derby has started 5 games with one goal, one assist and 3 player of the match awards. Frank Lampard has started 5 games with one goal, 3 assists and a pass rate of 93% which is the second best in the league and finally Christian Eriksen who has played 8 games with 3 assists and 1 goal along with 2 player of the match awards.

It is save to say that Luca Modric has been poor during the start to this season so the Del Piero Press Conference could be fiesty this weekend!


Griezmann is ahead of Kagawa in the pecking order

Shinji Kagawa has not fared much better himself. He has has 3 appearances with just 1 goal and no assists which in comparison to Ronaldo, who apparently isn't performing very well, has 8 appearances with 8 goals and 5 assists with 3 player of the matches and Griezmann is doing even better that that with 6 appearances, 5 goals, 3 assists and 2 player of the matches and a 78% cross rate meaning that Kagawa is way down the order because Matias Suarez is also performing at hte top of his game.

The press conference with Del Piero is live on BT Sport 1 at 5pm UK Time.