Club Brugge vs Mechelen Prediction: Brugge are clear favorites

On Sunday, both Club Brugge and Mechelen will open their campaigns in the Belgian Pro League by playing one another at the Jan Breydel Stadium. Both the host team and Mechelen struggled to impress in the league last season. The home team's season was so poor that it led to the firing of two different managers. Mechelen also had trouble competing in the league.

In the previous campaign, Club Brugge finished in the top four, one spot higher than Gent did. The team will look to improve upon their performance in this season.

They should have done better given their status as the reigning champions, but instead they just barely made it into the top four in the final few weeks of the season. Things went from bad to worse under Scott Parker, who took over after Carl Hoefkens was fired after leading the team to the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League in an unusual way when he was in charge. Ronny Deila, who was previously the manager of Club Brugge's bitter rivals Standard Liege but left that position during the end of the previous season, will take over as head coach for this upcoming campaign.

The team finally saw action for the first time this season on Thursday, when they hosted the first leg of their Europa Conference League second-qualifying-round tie against Aarhus. They dominated the match from start to finish, scoring first in the tenth minute thanks to Tajon Buchanan and adding two more goals in the second half through Mats Rits and Hugo Vetlesen.

With the momentum gained from their impressive start to the continental campaign, Deila's men will look to get off to a winning start in the fight of the Belgian Pro League title this season.

Historically, Mechelen have been considered underdogs when facing Club Brugge, and this will be no different as they enter this encounter. Mechelen will be looking for a more straightforward campaign this time around after escaping relegation by the skin of their teeth last season with a 13 point advantage over the three teams that finished in last place.

The 2019/20 season was KV Mechelen's first in the Jupiler Pro League, and they finished the year in 13th position, which is their lowest finish since joining the league in the 2019/20 season. They played exceptionally well in the Cup and advanced to the finals, where they were defeated by Antwerp 2-0. In spite of this, it is important to point out that Mechelen breezed through their competition on the way to the finals, facing only teams that were either dropped from the Jupiler Pro League or were dangerously close to being relegated.

Club Brugge: Simon Mignolet(GK), Jorne Spileers, Brandon Mechele, Maxim De Cuyper, Tajon Buchanan, Mats Rits, Raphael Onyedika, Hans Vanaken, Antonio Nusa, Andreas Skov Olsen, Igor Thiago.

Mechelen: Gaëtan Coucke(GK), Daam Foulon, Jordi Vanlerberghe, Dimitri Lavalée, Alec Van Hoorenbeeck, Soelle Soelle, Rob Schoofs, Julien Ngoy, Kerim Mrabti, Nikola Storm, Lion Lauberbach.

Since there have been more than 2oals scored in four out of the most recent five matches between these two rivals, I expect that there will be more than 2 goals scored in this match as well, with the game being won by the hosts from the first half onward.