Racing Genk has not been able to continue its good start in the Europa League. In his second group match, Genk received three goals at home from Dinamo Zagreb. “We have not made it easy for ourselves, but we still have every opportunity to rectify this,” says Genk trainer John van den Brom.
Racing Genk – Dinamo Zagreb in a nutshell:
- Key moment: A few minutes before half time, Heynen’s equalizer hits the post and shortly afterwards the ball hits the spot on the other side, after a penalty check by the VAR. Petkovic does not miss the opportunity and doubles Dinamo’s lead.
- Man of the match: Mislav Orsic was the defining player at Dinamo Zagreb. He offered Ivanusec the opening goal early in the game and came close to making it 0-2 himself when his shot hit the crossbar. He also forced a penalty foul in the second half.
- Remarkable: Genk remained unbeaten for more than 12 home games in the group stage of the Europa League, the 13th was too much. The balance of the last 6 home matches in Europe, including Champions League, looks bad with 5 defeats and 1 draw.
Dinamo floors Genk with early and late goal
Racing Genk wanted to continue the win at Rapid Wien and already take a big step towards European wintering on their own field. That plan became a lot more difficult after barely 10 minutes. Dinamo Zagreb switched quickly after Genk lost the ball and on a pass from Orsic, Ivanusec was able to open the score early.
Genk reacted on the fifteen minutes with an excellent combination. Munoz was launched by Ito and in turn put the ball back to Thorstvedt, but he aimed over in one time. Five minutes later, the Norwegian tried again with a long shot, but again he couldn’t get the ball inside the box.
Dinamo had to endure the match, but remained very dangerous on the counter. Moreover, Genk unintentionally lent a hand. After Arteaga lost the ball and a rash tackle by Lucumi, Ivanusec was able to lay the ball for the detached Orsic. Fortunately for the home team, they decided in one time on the years.
So just short of 0-2, it almost became 1-1 shortly afterwards. Livakovic had to make the save when Paintsil was able to blast from a sharp angle from close range. Moments later, the goalkeeper had been knocked when Heynen took the turn after a free kick by Toma, but this time the post stood in the way of the equalizing goal.
Bad luck for Genk and shortly before half-time, the home team received a sledgehammer blow when the VAR examined a penalty phase. Toma kicked Cop unluckily and referee Gestranius was relentless after looking at the images: the ball landed on the spot. A job for Petkovic, with a laconic kick he made it 0-2.
With an early and a late goal, Genk is already 0-2 behind the break:
Miss Vandevoordt is killing Genk completely
Dinamo sat in a chair and after the break the visitors pulled out all the tricks to gain time. Every now and then a player lay down or needed one care. Partly because of this, Genk did not get any momentum in his game.
On the hour, the home team could still put together a footballing action. Munoz found Onuachu’s head, but the torinic instinct failed the Nigerian sniper tonight.
A few minutes later, Genk was allowed to cross it completely. Vandevoordt missed a high ball and Munoz pulled the emergency brake at Orsic. The verdict was tough: red for Munoz and another penalty for Dinamo. With yet another phlegmatic penalty, Petkovic finally knocked Genk against the canvas.
Genk had to endure the match for more than 20 minutes, for Dinamo it was a Sunday walk. After the home defeat against West Ham, the Croats are back in the running in Group H. Genk will still have to fight for European winter.
Vandevoordt is completely beside the ball: penalty kick, red for Munoz and 0-3
“Deserved to lose, Dinamo was sharper”
- Bryan Heynen (Racing Genk): “It was a very unpleasant evening. We concede 2 penalties and they score after losing the ball with us. Our own mistakes were punished. We should have drawn strength from my shot against the post, but a penalty came not much later and that only made it more difficult. We started the second half in good spirits, but then we got another penalty and a red card. In the end, the score counts and they win here 0-3. We certainly deserved 1 or 2 goals, but it was all a bit disappointing today. I had the feeling that they also wanted it more than we did. We should not dwell too long on this game, good things have happened too.”
- Maarten Vandevoordt (goalkeeper Racing Genk): “This is very frustrating. Luck was not with us tonight. What happened with that second penalty? I wanted to go get that high ball and got hit. I don’t know by whom, it could also be its own player. We also played well today, but we didn’t finish our chances. Small mistakes are punished at this level and that happened tonight. The focus now has to be fully back to Eupen, we have to hit that again.”
- John van den Brom (trainer Racing Genk): “I did not expect this. Dinamo was sharper, they had more will to win. That’s where it starts. They did it in a really professional, European way. We can also learn from that, although it is terrible that we still have to learn from it. We also helped them in the game with our openness to the first goal. We had warned that they are strong in the conversion. With also 2 penalty kicks and a red card it becomes very difficult against such a team. In the first half we had enough chances to come alongside. We were not as sharp there as in the past period. We deserved to lose, Dinamo was sharper and in some aspects of football it was further ahead than us. That is an expensive lesson, but if we do something with it, we can move on. This was not a crucial match. We haven’t made it easy on ourselves, but we still have every chance to rectify this. This is a bit of a blow, we now have to recover and prepare ourselves mentally for the match against Eupen.”
Watch the reactions after the match:
Vandevoordt is completely beside the ball: penalty kick, red for Munoz and 0-3
