Cork City manager John Caulfield expects a huge step-up in class when they take on Genk in the Europa League tomorrow night but says his team can cause problems on the counter-attack.
City’s reward for knocking out Swedish outfit BK Hacken in the second round is a trip to face the Belgian giants (7pm) before the return leg at Turner’s Cross next week.
Caulfield has seen his team emerge victorious against both Linfield and Hacken on 2-1 aggregate scorelines, but are very much the underdogs to reach the play-off round.
Progression to the third round of qualifying has already guaranteed the club €220,000, but Caulfield admits that while the riches on offer are welcomed, it is the emotional connection which will live long in the memory.
“There’s a lot of talk about the money involved, and I understand the importance of that from the club’s point of view, but you can’t beat memories like last Thursday night at Turner’s Cross; no money buys you that,” he told the club website.
“We spoke to the players after the Hacken game about the incredible atmosphere and what they had achieved.
“As a management team, all we can do is push the lads as hard as we can and what we achieved last Thursday night was phenomenal.”
Genk finished fifth in the Belgian Pro League regular season table, and moved up a place to fourth in the play-off table to secure a Europa League berth.
The Belgians required a penalty shootout to see off FK Budućnost Podgorica in the last round but are 1/5 on favourites to take a lead to Leeside next week, but Caulfield is hoping for a repeat of the performance levels reached against Hacken.
“We go into another game now where we will be massive underdogs and we will be given little chance, but we will prepare as best we can; we know a lot about them and we will give it our best shot,” he said.
“We have a lot of pace out wide and I think we are dangerous on the counter"
“They have a number of players with international experience; physically they are a big, strong side. From our point of view, we have to perform as well as we did over the two games against Hacken and our concentration levels have to be high to give us any chance of bringing the game back to Cork.”
“If we give our best performance out there, that’s all you can ask for.
City have found the net on both of their European travels this season and Caulfield believes his side have the attacking artillery to cause problems at Cristal Arena.
“While they seem to be a better team than Hacken, we have to look after ourselves and see if we can give the same level of performance as we did last week.
“We have a lot of pace out wide and I think we are dangerous on the counter.
“You would imagine, with them being at home first, they will probably feel they can win the match and will come at us, which I think will give us opportunities on the counter.
“We want to bring the tie back to Cork and have that crowd back at Turner’s Cross again.”
