Where the road meets the corner of the aptly named Rue du Stade, local fan bar Union’s Taverne busily oils the voices which will drown out all else with a passionate cavalcade of song in the hours to come. Here and everywhere, Union followers spill onto the street in the shadow of their home ground, the Stade Joseph Marien. I’m here for Union SG’s first home game of the new league season against OH Leuven, and although Europe is still some way off in the calendar, their supporters are already in party mode. Weaving through the crowds, the scent of grilling meat and the distant pounding of a drum in the air, my first thought is that this feels like an awful lot of scarves for a humid summer evening.

My second thought is devoted to the sheer range of fans assembled in the street, from all ages and backgrounds, while a third goes out to the residents of this street-turned-carnival, before I realise that they are most likely the very same bodies I’m trying to forge a path through. Union have always been more of a community than a football club.

Long considered the David to city rivals Anderlecht’s Goliath, Union Saint-Gilloise have been cooking up one of European football’s most exciting stories in their own picturesque little corner of Brussels over the last five years.  

Once a giant in their own right with 11 titles and a Belgian-record 60-game unbeaten run that still stands today, they dropped out of the top flight in 1973 and remained in the local football hinterland for two generations. Union SG would not return for 48 years, but after winning the second division in 2020/21, they immediately made up for lost time, challenging for the title in each of the next three seasons before getting their hands on the crown at last in 2024/25, their first in 90 years.

Now a new frontier awaits this perennial underdog and their legion of drum-beating, scarf-waving, ever-faithful fans as Union prepare to show the continent’s best that their bite is every bit as potent as their bark. The club, originally founded in 1897, are taking their maiden steps in the Champions League this season – which is why I’m in town to get a sense of what they bring to the table.

There’s good reason for the festive atmosphere as the supporters gear up for today’s game, their scarcely believable title win still only a little over two months ago. I’m spending the day with Union super-fan Miro, who’s showing me the lay of the land, and he’s just as excited as everyone else. The newly crowned kings of Belgium had a shaky start to the campaign, losing the Super Cup to Club Brugge and drawing 1-1 in their league opener away at Royal Antwerp, but Miro was not unduly concerned. No one close to this team expects success to come easy, and it’s that attitude that could serve them well in Europe.

“First of all, what makes Union different from other teams in the Champions League is the underdog mentality,” says Miro. “Even though we played in the Europa League in the past few years, we’re not very well known, and that can be to our advantage. The fans will not put any pressure on the players, which means we want them to play with their heart, for our team, but our expectations are also realistic. That can help them to play freely, like they did against Liverpool [a shock 2-1 Europa League win in 2023].”