WHATEVER HAPPENS TONIGHT at Turner’s Cross, Cork City can reflect on a successful European campaign.
However, watching their rivals Dundalk reach unprecedented heights for an Irish club in Europe earlier this week has surely only added to City’s desire to see off KRC Genk in the second leg of their Europa League third-round qualifier (7.45pm, eir Sport 1).
The Leesiders enter tonight’s sold-out game 1-0 down from the first leg, but there were more than enough positives from last week’s game at the Luminus Arena to suggest that it’s still all to play for at the Cross.
City, who eliminated Linfield and BK Hacken, are aiming to progress to the fourth stage of a European competition for the first time in their history, having also reached the third round of the 2004 Intertoto Cup and Uefa Cup a year later.
Genk failed to impress seven days ago but Peter Maes’ side — who finished fourth in Belgium last season — will be boosted by their 2-1 home win against KV Oostende on Sunday night in what was their first league game of the season.
Cork City manager John Caulfield expects Genk to field the same team that started the first leg, which would mean they’ll line out with a 4-4-2 formation which develops into a 4-2-4 when they’re on the offensive, with Greek international Nikos Karelis and Tanzanian international Ally Samatta leading the line, supported from the flanks by 18-year-old Leon Bailey and veteran skipper Thomas Buffel.
Caulfield believes his side can take encouragement from Genk’s poor record on the road. In the 23 away games they’ve played in the last 12 months, Genk have won just four and lost 13.
“The most important thing for us is that we’re focusing on tomorrow night,” said Caulfield, when asked at his pre-match press conference in Cork yesterday if they’re keen to emulate Dundalk, who are one step away from the Champions League group stages.
“Obviously we know they’re going to play the same team as they did last week. The big thing for us is, as everyone had told us, their home record is phenomenal — they’re seldom, if ever, beaten at home — whereas we know on the road they don’t travel well, so that has also given us encouragement, as well as the fact that we created quite a few chances out there.
We know it’s going to be a difficult task, we know we’re massive underdogs, but at the same time, with a full house, the passion and the noise and the fact they haven’t travelled well on lots of occasions, we’re optimistic that it could be a memorable night for us.”
Caulfield says his team will be “similar, maybe one change” to the one that started in the first leg. That change could be an enforced on one the right side of City’s attack, with Steven Beattie picking up a knock in Belgium.
As captain Greg Bolger has said, City might need to be conservative early on lest they concede, which would necessitate them scoring three times in order to win the tie.
But if they can deliver a repeat of the performance they produced in Belgium, there could very well be another special night on the cards for League of Ireland football, as Cork City look to progress to a play-off for a place in the group stages of the Europa League.
