58 years later, the Union Saint-Gilloise will make its return to the European scene. After shining in the Pro League last season, the Unionists have won the right to play in the third preliminary round of the Champions League against Glasgow Rangers, the last finalists of the Europa League. Before this meeting, which will be played on Tuesday evening in Leuven, let’s go back in time for a brief moment.
After World War II, the “Yellows and Blues“ are only a shadow of themselves. Authors of a historic hat-trick in the early 1930s (Belgian champions from 1932 to 1935), the Unionists gradually lost their luster until switching to division 2 for the first time in their history in 1949. The Union will nevertheless manage to rise among the elite two years later, without however regaining its former glory. At least not in Belgium.
At the end of the 1950s, the inhabitants of Brussels, thanks to their prestigious past, were invited to play the Fairs Cities Cup (the ancestor of the Europa League). Although they encounter difficulties in the Belgian championship, the “Yellows and Blues” come back to life and become the first Belgian team to reach a European Cup semi-final (defeated by Birmingham City in 1960).
This brief return “to the top” will not prevent the Union from descending into D2, the antechamber of Belgian football, in 1963. The following year, the number 10 makes the lift and goes back to division 1, before relapsing one year later.
In the autumn of 1964, the Union again represented Belgium on the European stage, although in Division 2 the previous season. This time it faces Juventus of Turin. Despite a good performance at Duden Park in the first leg, the Unionists lost 0-1 on a French goal Nestor Combin. On the return, the team trained at the time by François Vanden Eynde suffers the same fate (1-0 defeat) in front of more than 4000 tifosi. This time it’s the Italian Giampaolo Menichelli who turns into an executioner and eliminates the Belgians from the competition. The Union does not know it yet, but on October 7, 1964, it has just played its last European match.
—
