Genk chairman stranded after arriving at wrong airport ahead of Cork City clash
Houben arrived at Liege airport yesterday, but the team’s flight departed from the airport at Maastricht. Houben then had to fly via Dusseldorf to make his way to Leeside.
The Belgians are favourites going into tonight’s second leg and enjoyed a positive start to their league campaign at the weekend.
Genk defeated Oostende 2-1 in the opening round of the Belgian Jupiler League last weekend with goals from Nikolaos Karelis and Mbwana Samatta. Oostende are one of the top six teams in Belgium and allowed Genk to play football and bring their creative players into the action.
Cork restricted Genk in the first leg, but City must score tonight, so this should give Genk the openings they lacked in Belgium. From a fitness standpoint, Genk will also benefit from the league game
Genk coach Peter Maes recognises that his team also has to look for goals, rather than aim for a clean sheet on their travels. The Genk defence is somewhat inexperienced and is missing the highly-rated centre-back Christian Kabasele, who has joined Watford.
Maes feels the game with Oostende will have boosted his team’s confidence but he has warned his players about the physical nature of the Cork side.
Certainly Maes and assistant coach Jos Daerden don’t think it will be easy tonight. Neither does captain Thomas Buffel who has emphasised the need to stay focused and to keep a cool head.
Tonight, Genk are expected to start with a 4-4-2 line-up, with the same 11 that started against Oostende. That would mean just one change from the first leg, with Samatta, injured in training, being replaced by Neeskens Kebano.
Leon Bailey — the 18-year-old Jamaican winger — could have joined Chelsea but opted for Genk. His performances last season led to him being elected Players’ Young Player of the Year.
Bailey didn’t train with the rest of the squad in their last session before leaving for Cork, but is expected to feature tonight.
Genk have won the Belgium league three times, the last occasion being in 2010-11 when Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne both featured in the team. Racing Genk have one of the foremost youth academies in Belgium — — other players who have spent time there include Yannick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid), and Divock Origi and Christian Benteke (both Liverpool).
The club have made a good profit from the sale of players but the money has not always been spent wisely. In a period of two years, Genk sold three centre backs — Kalidou Koulibaly to Napoli, Kara Mdodji to Anderlecht, and Kabasele to Watford — for combined fees of €24m. Some of the money was used to pay off debts and about a third went on striker Ilombe Mboyo, who didn’t prove a success.
The fans tend to be impatient and it was this pressure that led to general manager Dirk Degraen and technical director Gunter Jacob, recently appointed at Marseille, leaving the club. The pair had been fundamental in some of the most talented youngsters joining Genk.
Maes has said his young side need a run in Europe in order to develop. He has acknowledged his team had to work hard last season in order to qualify for Europe and they now have the chance to reach the Europa League group stages. Maes sees qualification as a huge step for his youngsters, but football being the business that it is, this could lead to them being placed in the shop window and moving on for large fees. Then the cycle starts all over again.
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