Union St Gilloise Secures Statement Win in Germany

Union St Gilloise may have been hundreds of kilometres from Brussels, but by the final whistle in Düsseldorf, the Merkur Spiel-Arena felt very much like their own patch.

A 4-0 win over Hapoel Beer Sheva, built on a ruthless second-half surge, kept their Europa League momentum rolling and underlined that this competition is fast becoming their natural stage.

Slow burn in a strange home

This was no whirlwind start. Playing their “home” tie across the border, Union took time to adjust. The setting was neutral, the stakes anything but.

An early setback arrived when Mateo Biondic was forced off injured, disrupting the rhythm just as they were trying to settle. Raul Florucz came on and, for a while, the game drifted – Union probing, Beer Sheva hanging in, the contest tight and slightly tense.

Then the breakthrough.

Just before half-time, Florucz seized his moment from the spot, burying the penalty to give Union the lead and a jolt of belief. It was a reward for persistence rather than fluency, but it changed everything. The “home” crowd finally had something to grab onto. Union had a platform.

They paid a price, though. Another injury blow followed as Darius Olaru also had to leave the pitch, with Dylan Aquino thrown into the action. The pattern of the night was becoming clear: setbacks, reshuffles, and substitutes being asked to do more than simply fill gaps.

Second-half surge

After the break, Union stopped feeling sorry for their luck and started punishing Hapoel Beer Sheva.

The pressure finally told just after the hour. Brazilian winger Guiherme Smith, increasingly dangerous down the flank, struck to make it 2-0. The goal released any remaining tension. From that moment, the Belgian side played with the swagger of a team that knew it had the game by the throat.

Beer Sheva faded. Union accelerated.

Aquino, the second enforced change of the evening, made his own mark. Joining in the wave of attacks, he grabbed his first goal for the club since arriving from Lanus in the summer, stretching the scoreline to 3-0 and turning a solid night into a statement one.

The night still had one more flourish. In the 80th minute, Smith struck again, his second of the match and Union’s fourth, capping a performance that swung from cautious to commanding in the space of 45 minutes.

A makeshift home. A patched-up team. A ruthless scoreline.

Europa League momentum builds

The victory keeps Union St Gilloise unbeaten in this Europa League campaign. They opened with a win over Viktoria Plzen, then held Real Sociedad to a 1-1 draw last week. Now comes this emphatic dismantling of Hapoel Beer Sheva.

Three games. No defeats. Growing authority.

Next up is another Spanish test: Celta Vigo, fresh from their own away win at Celtic. The stage will be bigger, the scrutiny sharper.

Union have already shown they can adapt, survive injuries, and turn a borrowed stadium into a fortress for a night. The question now is simple: how far can this run take them?