Read our prediction for Salzburg vs Genk below. This preview was written by a sport journalist who is specialised in betting tips and predictions. Use our betting tips for the match between Salzburg vs Genk and you can increase your winnings!
Salzburg vs Genk Prediction & Betting tips
With giants such as Liverpool and Napoli as group mates, Salzburg and Genk seem at first sight to have to compete for third place. Or can one of the two teams stunt?
Salzburg:
Red Bull Salzburg has been unapproachable in its own country in recent years. From 2014, the team crowned no less than six times in a row the best club in Austria. For example, the team of coach Marco Rose won no less than 80 points from 32 games last season and lost only two league games. This season the dominance is even better. That all up to seven league games have been won so far is not a big surprise, but the way that happened is: the team scored no less than 34 (!) Times in the first 7 games, an average of almost five hits per contest. For example, last weekend Hartberg was beaten with no less than 7-2 while earlier this season monster scores were achieved against Sankt Polten (0-6), Admira Wacker (5-0) and Wolfsberger (1-5).
So it is clear that Salzburg is not opposed in its own country, but in Europe it is different. This season is the first year that Austria’s champion has been directly admitted to the Champions League group stage, but in the years before, Red Bull never managed to survive the qualifying rounds of the champions ball. Last season, Red Bull did hibernate in the Europa League by winning all six of its games in a pool with RB Leipzig, Celtic and Rosenborg. In the sixteenth final the team was too strong for Club Brugge (1-2 defeat in Bruges, 4-0 victory in Salzburg), after which the current CL opponent Napoli was too strong in the sixteenth final (3-0 defeat in Naples, 3-1 victory in Salzburg).
Despite the impressive results of Salzburg, there are few players in the selection that are known to the large football audience. The most famous players in the Netherlands are Rasmus Kristensen and Maximilian Wober thanks to their Ajax past. Last summer, Salzburg sold his Israeli top shooter Munas Dabbur to Seville, but he failed to secure a base position at the expense of Luuk de Jong.
Genk:
Racing Genk enjoyed a huge lead over the next competition during the winter break. The Belgian system, in which the competition is split into a champion group and a relegation group in the second half of the season, made the title race even more exciting as the points of all teams were cut in half. In the end, Genk left a margin of only two points on the nearest attacker Club Brugge, but he was named the best team in Belgium. This year things are a bit more difficult in Limburg for the Limburgers. We lost three times in the first seven league games, which means that we find trainer Felice Mazzu’s team in the middle of the rankings.
Just like Salzburg, Genk played in the Europa League last season. A group with Besiktas, the Norwegian Sarpsborg and the Swedish Malmo was barely survived, but in the sixteenth final Slavia Prague was the final station.
The lower performance of Genk this season cannot be seen in isolation from the loss of a few strongholds. Leandro Trossard, for example, made a 20 million switch to Brighton, while Atalanta had 13.7 million to hire Roman Malinovskiy and Pozuelo made a switch to Toronto for 10 million. These millions are not invested in large purchases, which means that the Genk team is certainly not stronger than last year.