This will be the second consecutive campaign in which Atalanta and Club Brugge will face each other, with the Belgian sided winning both meetings in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League play-off round (5-2 on aggregate).

Atalanta only lost three of their 10 matches in the UEFA Champions League last season (W4 D3), while two of those three were inflicted by Club Brugge (the other by Real Madrid). The Italians lost more games in the play-off round (2) than they did across eight games in the league phase (W4 D3 L1).

Club Brugge’s victories over Atalanta last season ended a run of 15 consecutive games against Italian sides in major European competition without winning (D6 L9), spanning between November 2003 and January 2025.

Atalanta have lost each of their last three games in the UEFA Champions League; their joint-longest losing streak in the competition, with the previous instance coming in their first three matches in September/October 2019.

Club Brugge have only lost one of their last five matches in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League (W2 D2), with that lone defeat coming away to Manchester City (1-3 in January). The Belgians won 4-1 in their MD1 opener this term (v Monaco), where only Real Madrid (28) had more shots than them (26) across all fixtures played in the opening round.

Since keeping four consecutive clean sheets to begin the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League campaign, Atalanta have only kept one in their last seven matches (15 goals conceded). They faced 13 shots on target in their defeat to Paris SG on MD1 this season (0-4 defeat); their most in a single game in the competition to date.

Club Brugge were the team with the most direct attacks (7) on MD1 of the current UEFA Champions League campaign. Indeed, only fellow Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise (2.31 metres per second) had a higher direct speed average in attack than Brugge (2.3) in the opening round (via open play sequences).

Hans Vanaken scored and assisted in Club Brugge’s win against Monaco last time out in the UEFA Champions League (4-1), and has now been directly involved in 14 goals for the club in the competition (11 goals, three assists); at least twice as many as any other Brugge player.

Atalanta forward Charles De Ketelaere could become the first player to both score for and against Club Brugge in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League. De Ketelaere remains the youngest Belgian player to score for Brugge across the two competitions (19y 224d v Zenit St Petersburg in October 2020).

Against Paris SG on MD1 of the new UEFA Champions League season, Raoul Bellanova created more chances (3) and made more line-breaking passes (8) than any other Atalanta player.