SaintGilloise

The tone was set long before kick-off.

Howe has rotated his team while fighting on multiple fronts in the opening weeks of the season.

But it was rather telling that the Newcastle head coach only made two changes for this game – and one was enforced after Tino Livramento suffered a knee injury.

The Premier League’s joint-lowest goalscorers needed to catch fire.

“There has been a lack of good football in general,” Gordon told TNT Sports. “We have defended really well, been organised, but have lacked that spark and creativity. We really wanted to put emphasis on getting that back tonight.”

There was certainly no chance of Newcastle underestimating Union as the visitors looked to bounce back from the weekend’s painful defeat against Arsenal.

The Belgian champions may be newcomers in this competition, but they beat PSV in their first ever Champions League game last month and had not lost any of their opening nine top-flight fixtures.

Such has been Union’s progress in European competitions in recent years, they actually have a significantly higher coefficient than Newcastle.

It was hardly a surprise, then, that the visitors left no stone unturned before facing a side who had an extra day to recover and prepare.

As well as personally reviewing his opponent, as always, Howe familiarised his side with their new surroundings by training at Lotto Park on the eve of the game.

That did not go unnoticed by Union manager Sebastien Pocognoli.

“Maybe the opponent sometimes can be condescending, to look down on you,” he said. “They didn’t. They paid us full respect. They played a big match with their skills and qualities.

“They played top level, all the Newcastle players played top level, so it shows that they had great respect for us.”

Released by Arsenal as a youth player, Burgess went to university before he was offered a trial at Championship side Middlesbrough during his second year of study.

He earned a two-year professional contract, but was encouraged by then-manager Tony Mowbray to continue his education.

“It was something you couldn’t turn down,” he said of his first professional deal. “So I took it and finished my degree at Teesside University. They allowed me to transfer my first two years.

“Mowbray told me to make sure I finished it because the contract was a foot in the door, not a guaranteed career. I listened to his words and thankfully, I’ve been able to carve a career out with the game as well.”

Burgess enjoyed spells in League One with Peterborough and Portsmouth, before taking the plunge with a move to Belgium in 2020.

And, remarkably, he is not the only English centre-back who has swapped life in the third tier for a crack at the Belgian top flight.

Defensive partner Ross Sykes was picked up from Accrington Stanley in 2022 after Union “took a chance” on him.

The pair went on to help Union win their first league title in 90 years last season after Sykes, like Burgess, overcame adversity in his formative years.

Sykes may be 6ft 5in now, but he was previously released by Burnley because he was deemed to “too small” as a kid.

It ended up proving a turning point in his career.

“I didn’t want to keep going with academy football,” he said after he was let go at the age of 11. “But my mum and dad persuaded me to go on trial at Accrington Stanley one or two weeks later. I didn’t look back after that.”

Sykes and Burgess have gone on to make 318 appearances between them for Union on a journey that has taken the Belgian league leaders to Europe’s top table for the first time.

And Union’s 3-1 win against PSV in their first Champions League fixture did not come as a surprise to Sykes last month because his side are “not afraid to come up against anyone”.

Burgess certainly looked at home at Europe’s top table. The Union captain was rated 9.39 out of 10 by BBC Sport readers, finishing the match as the top-ranking player.

An Englishman who has only played one league game in the top two tiers of English football might not seem the most obvious to lead a European campaign – but Union have always taken the road less travelled.

“It’s a club built on the profile of bringing youngsters through from unknown leagues,” Burgess explains. “We have players from the Estonian, Latvian, Croatian, Austrian leagues and Union will give them a chance to shine if they see potential.

“My role is to help them and keep demanding high standards and usher them through, and then they get big moves all over Europe, which is a pleasure to see.”

The 2025-26 Champions League has just begun and the two Belgium teams in the competition have already made their mark.

On Tuesday, Union Saint-Gilloise enjoyed a dream Champions League debut as they stunned PSV Eindhoven with a 3-1 away win.

A youthful Club Brugge side then grabbed a commanding 4-1 victory over Monaco on Thursday – scoring three goals in the space of 10 first-half minutes to set them on their way.

The two Belgian sides have had recent resurgences.

Club Brugge have raced up Uefa’s club coefficient rankings over the past five seasons – going from 44th to 20th.

Union have made an even bigger jump, rising 38 places to 45th as they have reaped the benefits of a 2018 takeover by Brighton chairman Tony Bloom.

As recently as four years ago, Union were playing in the Belgian second tier.

They then narrowly missed out on the Pro League title for three years running, but last term they won the trophy for the first time in 90 years to guarantee Champions League football.

Club Brugge, meanwhile, have proved they are not to be underestimated on Europe’s biggest stage.

Last season they beat both Aston Villa and Sporting, and drew against Juventus and Celtic in the league phase before their campaign came to an end when they fell to Villa in the last 16.

And the club – European Cup runners-up in 1978 – came agonisingly close to reaching the Europa Conference League final in 2024 when they were narrowly beaten by Fiorentina in the semis.

Already this season, Club Brugge have beaten Red Bull Salzburg and thrashed Rangers 9-1 over two qualifying legs to reach the Champions League proper.

Their success has helped Belgian football, moving the association up to eighth in Europe in Uefa’s co-efficient rankings after dropping to 13th just a couple of seasons ago.

Over the past 10 seasons, six Belgian clubs have reached the knockout rounds of a European competition on at least one occasion – the same as their neighbours the Netherlands.