Europa League draw: Brighton owner Tony Bloom's Belgian club discover quarter-final and potential semi-final fate

Les Unionistes, who are making their first appearance in a UEFA competition this season, advanced to the last eight thanks to a 6-3 aggregate win over German club 1. FC Union Berlin in the round of 16.

The Brussels outfit won 3-0 at home last [Thursday] night, thanks to goals from Teddy Teuma, Lazare Amani and Loïc Lapoussin.

USG were held to a thrilling 3-3 draw in last week’s first leg. Victor Boniface (2) and Lapoussin grabbed the goals for the visitors in Berlin.

Royale Union Saint-Gilloise’s reward for seeing off Union is a quarter-final clash against another German team.

Union 60 will visit Bayer Leverkusen on April 13 for the first leg, before returning to Belgium for the second leg a week later.

Victory over Die Schwarzroten will set up a semi-final with the winners of the quarter-final involving José Mourinho’s AS Roma and Dutch club Feyenoord.

It has been a good week for Seagulls owner and chairman Bloom. The 52-year-old saw his horse Energumene win the Champion Chase at Cheltenham Festival for the second year running on Wednesday, just hours before Brighton’s 1-0 home win over bitter rivals Crystal Palace.

Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, meanwhile, sit second in the Jupiler Pro League – just five points off top-of-the-table KRC Genk – and topped their UEFA Europa League group after exiting the UEFA Champions League at the third qualifying stage.

Last season saw Albion trio Kaoru Mitoma, Deniz Undav and Kacper Kozłowski spend time on loan at the Brussels-based outfit.

Ivorian winger Simon Adingra is the latest Seagulls player to star for Les Unionistes. The 21-year-old, who moved to Sussex from Danish club FC Nordsjaelland in June 2022, has scored 12 goals in 39 games during his season-long loan at USG.