A liberated Antwerp took off like a rocket. After less than 5 minutes, Vincent Janssen, of all people, silenced all critics by successfully completing an excellent attack from the right.
That right side also turned out to be the recipe for success a few minutes later. Via via the ball ended up with Michel-Ange Balikwisha who could only score the 2-0.
Ten minutes played: Antwerp on a rose. KRC Genk in the thorns. It had no answer to the home team’s scorching start. Only after fifteen minutes were they able to recover from those two striking blows and look for opportunities.
Butez was ready twice for a surprising effort from Paintsil and a powerful header from McKenzie. Zeqiri hit the post.
The VAR also played a supporting role: it rejected Janssen’s second goal and approved Balikwisha’s second goal. Janssen was offside by a shoulder, Balikwisha was not offside when he once again escaped from the Genk defense.
A perfect half seemed to be in the making, until Bataille, who played a strong game, suffered a blackout. He passed the ball to Zeqiri, who was able to outwit Butez in two seconds. 3-1 at half time.
With a buffer, Antwerp leaned back a little more, Genk hesitantly created opportunities. Zeqiri again received a ball from an Antwerp player, but shot over goal.
And Janssen also showed his best defensive qualities, when he was twice in the right place during a corner kick to prevent a Genk goal.
Balikwisha was the man who came closest to scoring twice. But each time the target wood stood in the way of his third of the evening. A curl against the post and a bolt against the crossbar.
El Khannouss also showed himself to be very active, but he did not get closer to goal than a slider that flew half a meter wide.
In the end, Muja tapped an almost made goal into the wrong side of the goal net. A free kick from Paintsil flew in via Muñoz’s rebound and so it became 3-2 instead of 4-1. The real Antwerp redemption did not come in the second half, the much-needed Genk goal came too late.
As a result, Genk sees an unbeaten streak of 10 games come to an abrupt end and Antwerp also approaches within one point in the rankings. The healing process seems to have started in Antwerp.
