My dad being born in an army family spent time growing up on a couple of bases overseas, one
being in Mons, Belgium, where he became an avid Anderlecht fan. So, for his Christmas present I
whisked him off to Belgium to see his teenage team on home turf once again, some 50 years after
his last home match. When the stars align and Anderlecht draw an English team in Europe, we try to
find ourselves in the stadium, a 5-1 drubbing to Man Utd wasn’t too enthralling (2000) but the 3-0
down 2 nd half comeback against Arsenal was quite the experience (2014)!
Not having much free time, I sent a double game travel request to Nickes Sports Holidays and they sorted everything! We stepped on the Eurostar Friday afternoon in central London and found ourselves in Brussels city centre in no time. Nickes had us staying in the Hotel Ibis right by the station which was perfect for Anderlecht and easy access to Ghent for our first game.
Arriving around 6pm we had time to take a brisk 15-minute walk to the tourist district stopping by
the cosy Nuetnigenough restaurant, which came highly recommended. The small non-reservations
restaurant had a traditional menu serving up a delicious Carbonade washed down with our first local
beer of many, Gueuze Lambic (we chose poorly for our first, it was a rich cider-cum-beer, no
problem though as we had two more days to choose better!). Being Friday night, the city was alive
with tourists and those heading for a night out. We wandered the nightclubbing area to scout the
bars for the big Sunday lunchtime kick-off back home, West Brom vs the mighty Wolves in the FA
Cup, there were certainly a lot of options!
After a filling Ibis breakfast, we made the simple 30-minute train journey to Ghent, the whole
process of buying tickets and navigating the station was a breeze. Arriving to Ghent at 11am we
thought we may have arrived a little too soon for the 8.45pm kick-off, however we were pleasantly
surprised. Being a popular day trip from Brussels many tourists arrive and take the tram to the
historic old town, however, in doing so you will bypass two shops that may be of interest to readers
of this magazine. Between the central train station and Old Town there is a small area of thrift shops,
two of which are of great interest, one noticeably better than the other, but both selling old school
sports memorabilia, mainly football shirts from the early 90s to present day with prices ranging from
€30 to €200. Furthermore, the better of the two, Old Skool (Kortrijksepoortstraat 7), also stocked
throwback motorsport clothing, the 90s F1 Ferrari jacket being a personal favourite of mine in the
store.
After prying myself away from a €130 90s Juventus shirt we refuelled in an alfresco café by the canal
taking a coffee and beer in the mid-day sun on what was a lovely spring day. During the afternoon
we took in a leisurely 40-minute boat ride, St Bavo’s Cathedral (where for €16 you can see the
“Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” [one of the city’s main attractions), a very cringe worthy audio tour
of the castle and a quick visit to the official Ghent store above a tourist shop in the city centre.
After another Carbonade and couple of delicious Jupiler beers (current sponsor of the league) we
jumped on a tram (paying by contactless) and made our way towards the ground on the edge of
town in good time. Stepping off in a quiet suburb we had to navigate a pitch-black rural path to cross
the neighbourhood to reach the ground. Arriving some 90-minutes before kick-off we witnessed the
arrival of both team buses. We then looked for some more local beer to pass the time, there wasn’t
much on offer around the edge of town somewhat plastic stadium aside from a posh hotel which
was perfect for our needs.
Despite receiving a telling off for having a larger than A4 sized bag we breezed past security and into
the ground with time to buy a couple of beers to enjoy at our seats during the match. It took us alittle while to work out the process… first you need to buy tokens from a kiosk in the corner and then
each beer on purchase appeared to be weighed, we thought they were taking their alcohol
measures very seriously! However, unbeknown to us each cup had a barcode on the bottom which
when returned to a vending machine kiosk would credit your token account with €2, something
which of course is commonplace in many stadiums. We were perhaps a little slow on the up take… I
blame the strong pre-match beers!
Ghent, 3rd at the time, were hosting Westerlo in what was a lively affair finishing 2-2. Although the
best of the entertainment came late on when Westerlo, their fans seated just to our left, took a 1-2
lead in the 87 th minute via a penalty. Ghent, however, were not quite done yet and scored with the
last kick of the game in the 97 th minute. The stadium erupted! However, it wasn’t quite the “limbs”
you would expect from a last-minute equaliser, but it was lively nonetheless. Given the late kick off
time we had a swift 3.3km walk back to the station for the last train back to Brussels. The last train
home at midnight was an experience in itself, it was packed with what looked like a mix of tourists,
party revellers heading home and party revellers just heading out!
Sunday morning had us racing towards the city centre for some sightseeing before setting up shop in
The Rooster Bar for the Wolves game. The 30-minute crowd trouble delay gave us more time to
sample some local beers before wandering back to the hotel via the infamous and somewhat
underwhelming Manneken Pis. Back at our hotel it was a 15-minute bus ride to Anderlecht, and
what we were greeted with was like night and day vs. the Ghent experience! The streets around the
compact ground were closed to traffic and it was a sea of fans enjoying the outdoor entertainment,
pop-up bars and music in the late afternoon spring sunshine – my only regret was not getting there
sooner! The atmosphere outside the ground was far superior to Ghent, even though they had the
prime-time Saturday night game.
Once inside we easily found our seats, in what was to be a sellout, right up against the barrier to the
Union Saint Gilloise fans, who had packed out their section some 60-minutes before kick-off and
their party was certainly well underway! Being above the ultra-section housed in the lower tier of
tribune 2 we had a few of them come up to join us as they unveiled a huge banner as part of their
pre-game TIFO. We were also joined by a couple of others in plain clothes but with earpieces who I
can only assume were plain clothed policemen that kept the ultras by their banner and away from
the Perspex divide, not that they looked like they had any intention of moving towards it.
Once again, we were treated to an exciting match and a lot of noise from the away fans to our left
and ultras below us. Union cruised to a two-goal lead in what I now thought was going to be a one-
sided affair, however, Jan Vertonghen soon pulled one back on 35 to lift the home crowd. The
following 57 minutes proceeded without a goal until Hazard popped up to tap in at the front post
from a wide free kick that took a fortunate deflection in the box before making its way to him to
unleash mayhem in the home end! Given the play-off structure of the Belgian Pro League the Union
fans weren’t too dismayed by the late equaliser and carried on partying knowing they were still most
likely going to top the league before the business end of the season began.
After the euphoria of the game, we opted to walk back the 3km and in doing so saw a little more of
Brussels, albeit quite a different city from when my dad last saw it. We walked for the most part
down a lively street but given it was now Sunday evening sadly there was no time to sample any
more Belgian beers. After an eventful day we were back in the hotel by 10.30pm all in good time for
the 6.45am alarm and the 7.55am train back to London… and back to reality after a great weekend!
