Club Brugge vs FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk preview - Mechele calls for focus

Club Brugge defender Brandon Mechele has demanded that his side focus against Dnipro following a defeat at the weekend.

Brugge, the only unbeaten team left in the competition, face the Ukrainians in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final clash at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Thursday off the back of a first defeat in nine, a 2-0 loss at Kortrijk.

The Blauw-Zwart conceded after just four minutes and came off the back of conceding another early goal the previous week against Standard Liege.

"We were not focused enough at the start of the match [on Saturday]," Mechele said. "This is the second week in a row that we have started by conceding an early goal.

"It just didn't happen for us. We tried to make something of it. We had the chance to grab points but it simply did not work.

"As a team we now have to find an answer, beginning with Thursday in the Europa League.

"We now have to keep our heads up as we go into the next game."

Brugge, who are hoping to reach the last four of a European competition for the first time since the 1991-92 Cup Winners Cup, will be without Thomas Meunier who is suspended.

Dnipro also come into the game after an indifferent result, a goalless draw with Metalist Kharkiv.

Midfielder Ruslan Rotan admits the Brugge game was a distraction for his side.

"It is worse when you think about something else," he said. "Before the game [at the weekend] we were talking amongst ourselves and said that every game is important to us.

"You can never play thinking that some games are disposable.

"The main thing is not to repeat such mistakes in the future."