Europa League: Genk and Gent vie for neighbourhood superiority and a place in last eight

Gent striker Jeremy Perbet celebrates scoring a Europa League goal against Tottenham on February 23, 2017. Justin Tallis / AFP

Anybody preparing for a road trip across Belgium between Gent and Genk has two alternatives. You veer north, via Antwerp. Or head south, via the Brussels ring road. Not much in it, generally. Both trips will take about an hour-and-a-half.

The westward journey taken by supporters of Genk today to watch 90 minutes of football at the home of fellow Belgians Gent will feel familiar enough. But this fixture is special for being unusually unprovincial.

The two clubs, currently occupying neighbouring positions at eighth and seventh in their country’s first division, meet for a place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

So a higher number of foreign broadcasters will cover the match than this fixture normally attracts. That will mean, for the sake of clarity, a few journalists finding ways to make clear distinctions between the very similar names of the teams, and the cities involved.

A tip: it is legitimate to refer to Gent as “La Gantoise”.

Gent v Genk is an eye-catching tie at this advanced stage of a major European competition not only because it trips off the tongue.

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That the Belgian Pro League is guaranteed a club in the last eight of the competition is a matter of pride. Pride that might yet be doubled if Anderlecht, a club with more historic pedigree than Gent or Genk, overcome Apoel Nicosia in their tie.

“It is a good response,” Philippe Albert, the former Belgium and Newcastle United defender and now TV pundit, said, “to anyone who thinks our championship is not worth much.”

Nobody, having seen the influence of Belgian footballers across more celebrated leagues — from Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku in the English Premier League to Radja Nainggolan and Dries Mertens in Italy’s Serie A — doubts that this a nation with a strong football culture.

But even if the best Belgians tend to leave the country young, the clubs they leave behind are often fortified by transfer fees they recoup.

In the past seven years, the Pro League, as the top flight is known, has jumped up from 14th in Uefa’s rankings of Europe’s domestic leagues, to ninth.

Gent can take some credit for that. Last season, they defied hierarchy to reach the knockout stage of the Uefa Champions League. La Gantosie reached their date with Genk tonight by eliminating Tottenham Hotspur in the last round of the Europa League.

That is the Tottenham with little excuse to underestimate the strength of Belgian football. They employ a fleet of distinguished Belgians: Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Mousa Dembele.

Form provides few clues about how the contest, or the return leg in Genk, might go.

Gent beat Genk 1-0 at home in the league at the beginning of the season but Genk achieved a 2-0 win over the visitors in the return fixture in December. Since then, though, Genk have sold Wilfred Ndidi, the impressive central midfielder, to Leicester City, and the winger Leo Bailey to Bayer Leverkusen.

While Genk and Gent battle it out in the all-Belgian tie tonight, in Germany something even closer to a true derby takes place.

Gelsenkirchen, home of Schalke, and Monchengladbach, from where fans of Borussia will set off for the all-Bundesliga contest for a place in the Europa League’s quarter-finals, are less than 85 kilometres apart.

The clubs will meet for the 103rd time tonight but for the first time in a European contest.

Overall, Monchengladbach have a distinct edge through 55 years of rubbing up against Schalke. The last time they met in a knockout match, in last season’s German Cup, Monchengladbach progressed.

The home team won on each occasion they played in the Bundesliga that term, and the same has happened this season.

The bad news for Schalke is that the most recent meeting took place on Saturday, where Monchengladbach won 4-2.

Momentum, then, with the visitors tonight. The good news for neutrals is there should be plenty of goals across the two legs of this local scuffle. Earlier in the season, Schalke put four past Monchengladbach.