Royal Football Club Antwerp is allowed to play against some of the greats of European football until December after a victory at AEK Athens. It plays in Group H against Barcelona, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk. ‘Feasible or not? You never know with Antwerp’, says sports journalist Hans Vandeweghe.
Was it still surprising that Antwerp qualified for the champions ball at the expense of AEK Athens on Wednesday?
“No. The fact that AEK seemed stronger in Antwerp than in Athens had to do with the exclusion of Jelle Bataille in that first match. They defended the 1-0 lead very maturely in Athens. And they were left with eleven. Sometimes they were under, but you can’t say that AEK has forced a cartload of opportunities. On the contrary, those Greeks never got into their game due to the constant pressure from Antwerp.
“Just like in the Belgian league in top matches, they gave almost nothing away. Even after that late 1-1 and the retirement of Toby Alderweireld, there was no problem. Antwerp had the better chances of counterpunch. What was especially striking was the maturity of that team. Now they can try it with the very big ones.”
Let’s look at the opposition. FC Barcelona…
“…is unfeasible in normal circumstances, but if everything goes well in Antwerp and Barcelona, football will be played at ninety percent because they think they can also get the job done, then a draw or even a victory can be achieved.
“Porto was humiliated by Club Brugge last year, so why shouldn’t Antwerp beat it? Only those Portuguese will now be warned about the level of the Belgian competition.”
And then Shakhtar Donetsk, or visiting recent history.
“Donetsk is a team from Ukraine and that country is, as we now know, at war. Shakhtar has not played his matches in Donetsk since 2020, because that is in territory annexed by Russia. They played successively in Lviv and later in Kiev. The competition did not take place in 2022, but in 2023, first without, then with an audience.
“For European football, they will move to their fifth stadium since 2014. This time they will not play in Poland, but in the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, so not too far a move for the Antwerp fans.
“Even more striking: their owner is Rinat Akhmetov, once the richest man in Ukraine, once with Russian sympathies, but no longer. He is – or rather: was – also the owner of the Azov stable factory in Mariupol. It became world famous when the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion entrenched there for weeks until the factory fell in May 2022 and was completely destroyed.”
What about the quality of that team?
“The core consists of Ukrainians, supplemented by four Brazilians. There were years when half of the squad was Brazilian, but the times of Brazilian internationals Alex Teixeira and Willian are over. Now there are still some Africans and South Americans playing, but those who could leave there for a nice club have long since left.
“It will also be a Dutch duel, because Marc van Bommel will face the trainer duo Patrick van Leeuwen and Raymond Atteveld (ex-Waregem in 93-94, red) to stand. In short: feasible card, this group, but Antwerp will have to be at its best. In the recent past they always have been when it came down to it, so that is reassuring.”
Can the fat pots of the Champions League put Antwerp in safer financial waters?
“If those fat pots are not used to buy new and expensive players, or even worse, to pay back the Gheysens family, and the money is used to balance the balance, then that can bring a one-off solace.
“Antwerp can already count on more than 30 million euros for those first six matches alone. That is a lot for a Belgian club, but since this is not a recurring income, you cannot count on it to be self-sufficient. The chance that Antwerp plays the Champions League every year is not very great. And it is not a game changer either, as it turned out in Ghent. AA Gent overwintered in the 2015-2016 campaign, but was unable to maintain that level.”
