Standard is preparing for its first big test of the season against Racing Genk. The Rouches want to send a clear message to the competition: this year, it will be necessary to count with them. It remains to be seen if they are really ready to prove it.
The Standard began its 2025-2026 season with a 4/6: the Rouches won on the lawn of the Raal on the first day, before sharing the stake against Dender, last weekend, after a goal collected in the last minutes.
La Louvière and Dender, two teams which are, on paper, lower than this standard, which still clearly lacks automatisms, but which has individual qualities which have not been present for a few seasons. The Liégeois therefore regret not having made a flawless to start the championship.
Genk, the first big test of the standard season
Sunday, it is an opponent of another caliber who will present himself in Sclessin: Genk, third of the last championship and leader for 80 % of the previous season. An opponent with individual and collective qualities obviously superior to those of La Louvière and Dender.
“Genk will be our first real test. The Union, the following week, the second. We still have a good week of training to prepare. Dender was already a solid and well-organized opponent, but Genk will be our first big test,” said Mircea Rednic at a press conference after sharing last weekend.
If the wolves, in the second period, and Dender, during the first 60 minutes, had rather control of the ball, without creating a multitude of frank opportunities, Genk is a team that risks putting much more pressure on a defense of the standard which still seems febrile.
With, as Rednic said, one more week to perfect automatisms, and perhaps some feedback in the nucleus in the nucleus (Boli Bolingoli, Ibe Hautekiet, Adnane Abid and Casper Nielsen are in collective training), the Rouches will have to put more pressure on their opponent in the first minutes, which notably missed Dender for the return to Sclessin.
Genk runs after his first victory, the standard wants to send a strong signal
Racing Genk is a team that has not yet won this season and runs after its first victory: Standard will have to take advantage of it. For the first time of the season, the Rouches will be able to choose to play with a lower block and counter or put pressure on their opponent.
In recent years, the number 16 has often been used to losing points against more affordable teams, then beating the tenors, often at home. To finally launch Sclessin and pursue a subscription campaign that has already gone over expectations, Mircea Rednic players will have to set fire during their first big shock of the season.
In search of a top 6, they will also have the opportunity to measure themselves in a very likely future participant in the Play-Offs champions, to see the path they have to go. Last season, Genk had been surprised by standard at home during the first day (0-0), and Thorsten Fink will want to make sure that the mishap does not happen again, even if it will be, this time, Sclessin who will welcome the meeting.
