After playing a mature match, and the point we took with us from Liege, there is another tough hurdle to overcome.  KRC Genk is on the Sunday menu, up to our Kemphans to choose which way to devour it.

KVC Westerlo

Against Standard, our coach had more defensive stability built in. Brand-new acquisition Emin Bayram defended with passion and aggression and, by the way, received the highest number of points after his name on various media. Sinan Bolat also scored high, reappearing in goal at the expense of Nick Gillekens. Sinan, with some witty interjections (five in total) kept his nets clean, suddenly yielding our first cleansheet of the season. Then again, Sergii Sydorchuk was the player who had won the most duels in percentage terms (70%). Another defensive pawn, Roman Neustädter, is the only Kemphaan who was allowed to start in all matches, and who has completed all playing minutes so far.

On the move, better statistics are being put forward this season, we list them: we get more points (2 vs 0), we score better (4 vs 3) and we get fewer goals against (6 vs 10).

Sunday marks the 23rd edition of this fixture. In total, we went home with points nine times, 4 wins and 5 draws. The last time we took points dates from 12 years ago, when our Brazilian striker Paulo Henrique put the 0-1 on the board nine minutes before time and a few minutes later gave the assist to Rachid Farssi to make it 0-2. By the way then Courtois and De Bruyne were even on the pitch and the Genkies were playing champions later in the season.

KRC Genk

The Limburgers will play their 16th match of the season on Sunday. In their previous eight home games, they only managed to win once, which is quite remarkable. Demirspor (2-1) was the opponent that night. Six draws and one defeat, so our Kemphians should not despair. By the way, STVV’s Aboubakary Koita showed how it’s done last week. In record time, he had scored a flawless hat-trick in the first half. Coach Vrancken was apparently silent at half-time and just before the start of the second half, he peped up his players one more time to then set up that handsome remonstrance.

Of the 11 goals scored in the domestic league, nine different players signed present. Only their new number 10, Bilal El Khannouss, and striker Tolu(walese) Arokodare could already score twice.

Also at Genk, we see only one pawn who was allowed to start in all matches: goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt, who is very close to receiving a first selection for the Red Devils soon.

By the way, did you know that coach Vrancken has a very remarkable statistic against our Kemphans: in seven matches he never lost points and in the three confrontations with our coach ditto. Never had to concede a single point.

Referee

• Wesli De Cremer
• Both Genk and Westerlo had already had him once this season
  • Genk won at RWDM 0-4
  • Westerlo lost 1-3 at home
• Westerlo is the club he has whistled the most already in his career: Sunday will be the 18th game

Text and statistics: Peter Boons