Cup glory for KRC Genk

KRC Genk have won the 2020-2021 Belgian Cup Final. They beat Standard de Liège 1-2 in Sunday evening’s final that was held in an all but empty King Boudewijn Stadium. It was KRC Genk’s 5th Belgian Cup Final win, not bad going given that the club has only existed in its present form since 1988 when Thor Waterschei and KFC Winterslag merged to form Racing Genk. 

Sunday’s final was a repeat of the 2018 final. However, sadly this time around the coronavirus pandemic meant that the game was played behind closed doors. Fans were left with no other than, as has been the cast for most of the season, to watch the game at home on television.

Genk started strongly with a Thorstvedt shot hitting the post early on. This served as a warning to Standard that showed no lack of fighting spirit but lack creativity and simply weren’t sharp enough where it mattered. Standard defended well though and managed to successfully contain Genk’s goal-machines Bongonda and Onuachu during a first half hat ended goalless. 

JBO

Ito’s (photo above) goal three minutes into the second half served to open up the game. Standard were behind and Genk were deservedly a goal up. The Limburgers slowly took control off the game. Although the better team, Genk had issues in defence particularly with the Standard sub Muleka.

As the game progressed Standard took more and more risks. 10 minutes from time Genk’s Bongonda took advantage of this and put the Limburgers two-up. Muleka’s 84th minute goal for Standard meant that the cup final remained exciting to the end. However, Genk were able to survive Standard’s final offensive and the game finished 1-2 to the Limburgers. KRC Genk are now 100% certain of European football next season. 

Orange Pictures

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