Friday night’s clash between Anderlecht and Racing Genk has all the makings of a cracker. The teams are level on points at the top of the table, with identical records. Genk just edge the lead at the moment; on more goals scored and a better goal difference. The match also takes Franky Vercauteren back to Parc Astrid and puts him in direct opposition to his old assistant coach Ariel Jacobs. Last time the teams met, at the Cristal Arena, Vercauteren pointedly refused to shake hands with Jacobs, as their parting had not been amicable. This time, Vercauteren seems more sanguine about such matters and a firm handshake is likely to be the order of the day.
Certainly, Vercauteren has reason to smile. He never thought he would take his team to Anderlecht in March as league leaders. Even better, due to the infantile playoff system in place, even a defeat for Genk will not be a disaster. When the playoffs start in a few weeks time, the top six will enter a mini-league with just half of the points they will have gained in the season proper.
In recent weeks, Genk have just done enough to get the points. They haven’t conceded in the last three games, though, and their keeper – young Thibaut Courtois – looks set to have a glittering career. Vercauteren will be playing 4-4-2, with both Jelle Vossen and Marvin Ogunjimi returning from injury as twin strikers. Outside them will be Israeli Elyaniv Barda who gets a tad upset when he’s not on the team sheet and, one for the future, Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne is a confident player and he’s just getting back into form after illness. He insists his best position is just behind the striker, but Vercauteren has him on the wing for the sake of the side. Genk are a young team, average age 23, with De Bruyne 19, Vossen 21 and Courtois just 18. The midfield pairing is likely to be David Hubert and Daniel Tozser, both hard-working rather than spectacular. That means no place in midfield for ex-Anderlecht starlet Anthony Vanden Borre, although Vercauteren may decide to play him in the back four. Also on the bench will be veteran ex-Ranger Thomas Buffel and new signing Kennedy Nwanganga, who has looked sharp in attack in the last two games.
For their part, Anderlecht go into the match on the back of three consecutive defeats. In that time, they haven’t scored a goal and have conceded seven. The days when people were talking about Silvio Proto’s clean sheets are long gone. Anderlecht will be captained by mild-mannered Lucas Biglia. Somewhat out of character, he told the press that his team were “wounded lions” and were “out for revenge”. He had to say something and it’s likely that regular skipper Oliver Deschacht will be back soon. On Friday night, Jonathan Legear will no doubt be flying down the right wing, at least for the first 20 minutes. Romelu Lukaku is said to be fit after the scare on the training ground and midfield patrol duties are likely to fall to Biglia, Cheikhou Kouyate, as the enforcer, and Guillaume Gillet. The home side will be looking for a big game from “Golden Boot” Mbark Boussoufa but I feel he may be muscled out by the Genk defenders. Anderlecht’s defence can also play it tough, marshalled by Ronald Juhasz, and they will be glad it’s not Ajax again tomorrow. At right back, Marcin Wasilewski has been accused of being something of a pussycat since returning from his horrific injury – we’ll see which Wasyl turns up tomorrow.
The “Dernière Heure” did an evaluation – in euros – of the two teams and came up with €59 million for Anderlecht and € 26 million for Genk. Some of the estimates were interesting, said to be based on discussions with agents and “specialist websites”: Lukaku €14m, Biglia €8.5m, De Bruyne €5m, Boussoufa €9m, Juhasz €6m and Vossen €4m. .
The match is hard to call. Anderlecht have a good home record, are more experienced than Genk and will want to get rid of their Europa League blues. However, Genk are confident and in De Bruyne and Ogunjimi, they have players who are on the way up and have not known what it is to fail. I’d love to say that the young guns of Genk will do it, but something tells me that it will be a low-scoring draw. Just call me sad!