“What went wrong today? In the initial phase, we gave the match away,” Heynen opened after the match. “We were not sharp enough and quickly scored two avoidable goals. Then we also accept that 3-0, then it becomes difficult.”
Nevertheless, blue and white fought back into the match. First Andi Zeqiri scored the tying goal and just before half time Racing claimed a penalty for a mistake on Heynen. “I haven’t seen the images yet, but I think it was a penalty. I am approached when I have the opportunity to extend the ball. The VAR even intervenes, which normally only happens if they think it is a problem clear error is. But the ref still sticks to his decision, which I find strange.”
In addition to the penalty phase, there was also a lot of fuss about Vincent Janssen’s tackle on Joseph Paintsil’s ankle at the beginning of the second half. “I haven’t seen the images yet, so I can’t say much about it,” Heynen said. “It looked bright, but at the time I thought yellow was correct.”
No red above the ankle
“It’s a shame that we lost like this today. But the focus must now immediately be on Thursday’s important match in Ferencvaros,” said the Genk captain. His coach Wouter Vrancken was also saddened by the loss and refused to hide behind the referee decisions, but still had something to say: “I am happy that Mark van Bommel himself has already mentioned that Antwerp got away well twice. (Laughs) If such an experienced man says so. I think that penalty foul on Bryan Heynen was obvious. He was pulled to the ground with both hands. The VAR had also seen that, I don’t know why the referee didn’t follow him.”
Antwerp defender De Laet comes to have a chat with Vrancken. — © Isosport
Janssen’s tackle was also discussed: “Firstly, Paintsil had already played the ball when Janssen started his tackle. He didn’t have the slightest chance to play the ball anymore. But the intensity of the tackle also warrants a red card. (Shrugs) If you hear afterwards that it was not a red because the player was not hit above the ankle… Well, what do you have to say about that?” Yet Vrancken saw that his team was simply not good enough: “I don’t want to blame our defeat on that, we gave away the goals too easily.”
Praise from Van Bommel for Vrancken
Home coach Mark van Bommel was of course very satisfied with the victory. “We have received too little a few weeks in a row, so a win like this against a strong team like Genk is extra good. We were on a roll early on after some good goals. But we gave away the 3-1 ourselves. Moreover, you know: you are never done with this Genk. I’m glad their second goal came too late to cause us any problems.”
Van Bommel. — © Isosport
Van Bommel also admitted that his team had two good escapes in the penalty phase and Janssen’s yellow card. He also praised Balikwisha – “with more regularity he becomes untenable for us” – and… his colleague Wouter Vrancken. “I never said anything about it. But the way he came to congratulate me on the field after the title match was great. I see few colleagues doing it. Moreover, he deserves all the praise for the consistent way in which he allows his team to play offensive football. We also played openly, so you get attractive matches like this.”
Balikwisha was the great hero at Antwerp. — © BELGA
The fact that Antwerp took advantage of the space left by Genk on its left flank in the opening phase was no coincidence, Van Bommel admitted. “You know that El Khannouss likes to create a surplus centrally. So we quickly tried to tilt the game to that side, where Bataille had to sprint deep at 100%. But that cuts both ways, because El Khannouss also got us into trouble. Only this time it turned out well for us.”
