Matchday one in the Belgian Pro League sees Anderlecht travel to the Stade Joseph Marien to meet with Royale Union Saint-Gilloise as two of Belgium's top clubs go head-to-head with the away side aiming to swiftly move on from a dreadful 2022/23 season.
Anderlecht experienced one of their worst-ever seasons in recent times and the last campaign will go down as arguably their worst in the 21st century after losing more games than they won.
Des nouveaux visages au stade ! 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/AtkzXr5wlq— Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (@UnionStGilloise) July 26, 2023
Des nouveaux visages au stade ! 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/AtkzXr5wlq
The 34-time record winners of the Belgian Pro League ended the season in 11th.
In fact, Anderlecht managed to secure 13 wins from 34 games, drawing seven and losing the other 14.
This saw them score just 49 goals, which saw them finish as the seventh lowest scorers from the 18 sides in the division.
Prior to this campaign, the club were struggling at times under Vincent Kompany, but nevertheless, this will be their worst season in recent memory after also letting in 46 goals too.
In the past few weeks, however, Anderlecht have dramatically improved their form in preseason friendlies after smashing Oudenaarde 5-0 before defeating NK Lokomotiva 3-1 and then beating Ajax 3-0.
Their 11 goals and one conceded was the best record from all Belgian Pro League sides in the friendlies this summer.
Anderlecht's last competitive game did see them lose the Europa Conference League quarter-final battle with AZ Alkmaar, despite beating them 2-0 at home in the first leg - Majeed Ashimeru and Michael Amir Murillo scored a goal in either half that day.
However, a 2-0 loss in the Netherlands, to Alkmaar forced a penalty shootout where the Belgian giants were defeated after scoring just once from the penalty spot.
As for Saint-Gilloise, they ended up finishing second in the regular season with 23 wins from 34 games that kept them level on points with Genk but below on goals difference. It marked their best finish in a Belgian Pro League season since 1935.
However, they would go on to finish third in the Championship round and won only two of the six games in this phase.
It meant they failed into the Conference League play-off group phase.
On matchday one, Forebet predicts a win for last season’s regular campaign runners-up and for the game to see over 2.5 goals after Saint-Gilloise managed to finish way higher in the table last year and beat Anderlecht in each encounter in the 2022/23 season.