It’s all happened so quickly. That’s how most associated with Union Saint-Gilloise feel. In short, twelve months ago the club from the capital had just emerged from Belgium’s second tier and were preparing for their first season in the top division in 48 years. They went on to finish runners-up to champions Club Brugge.

Now, in between their two-legged third qualifying round tie with Rangers for a place in the play-off stages of the Champions League, the Brussels club are dreaming big. Union defeated the Scottish team 2-0 on Tuesday and are now one game away from meeting either PSV or Monaco to duel for a group-stage berth.

What’s remarkable is that Union were so close to being crowned Belgian champions last term. The team was unchanged from the promotion season and raced ahead to finish first in the regular league table before the division — as is customary in Belgium — to be halved and Union ended up second in the four-way play-off for the title; two defeats in three days to Brugge proved their agonising undoing.

However, that may prove to be small change should Union make it into the Champions League group-stages in their first European campaign. Should they achieve it, then they will have to play their home games away from the art deco Stade Joseph Marien, which holds a little under 10,000 spectators but doesn’t meet Uefa’s standards.

This is an area of Brussels, close to the Eurostar terminal, which has plenty of cafes and bars but possessed little appetite for football until a few seasons ago when Union were a middling second division club. They had been Belgium’s most successful club before the Second World War but remained outside of the top flight for almost five decades.

The sharp ascent started when Tony Bloom, owner of Brighton & Hove Albion and a professional poker player, and his friend and business partner, Alex Muzio, purchased the club in 2018. Bloom leaves the day-to-day running of the club to Muzio and Limerick-born sporting director, Chris O’Louglin, and to say things have gone swimmingly would be an understatement.

Many more have joined the Union movement since the pandemic subsided. Most home games start hours ahead of kick-off with essentially an “open air festival with fans” gridlocking the streets. Reasonably priced season tickets ranging from £135 to £335 have also encouraged support. While there has also been a shift to a more sustainable and community-based footing.

My own person views on football and way I am is very mirrored in the fanbase,” Muzio told The Belgian Football Podcast. “The sympathetic nature of the support base, the positivity, the anti-racism, the anti-fascism, the community spirit is very much part of my own personal ethos. I don’t have to think, ‘What would the supporters like me to do?’ I just have to think: ‘How would I like this to work?’

Muzio admitted Union’s exceptional season was partly down to the effects of the pandemic and the dented revenues of the bigger clubs like Anderlecht, Brugge, Gent and Genk. That said, Union have used their resources well. Their policy was to sweep up players who have not had the easiest ride, so as to prioritise recruits with resilience who are unlikely to take success for granted. Many of them have been recruited from clubs playing in the second and third divisions of countries abroad.

Christian Burgess being one of them. The 29-year-old centre-half had been preparing for a sixth season at English League One club Portsmouth when Union made the call at the start of the promotion-winning season. Little did Burgess know that he would be within touching distance of facing the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich so soon.

Most of us bar one or two have never done anything of this magnitude, playing for a place in the Champions League,” the former Arsenal youth player says. “We have massive underdog mentality. Our character means we relish these kinds of games.

Having out-played Rangers in nearby Leuven in the first leg, Union hope to see the job through at Ibrox on Tuesday evening. A trip over the border to either France or the Netherlands will follow. It’s just a case of this small Brussels suburb taking it all in.

The consensus is that Union will fall back into mid-table this season given their modest resources and with stronger sides around them. However, Union’s players — along with their new manager Karel Geraerts who replaced Felice Mazzu after the latter took the Anderlecht job in the summer — have been given the chance to add an exciting new chapter to the story of their careers. They have a free pass, which should give them even more licence to enjoy it.

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