Football: Genk go from nought to top in 11 years
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Your support makes all the difference.Belgium
GENK, FORMED only 11 years ago, won their first Belgian championship with a tense 2-1 win at Harelbeke on Sunday.
The defending champions, Club Bruges, finished two points behind in second place with a 5-3 home win against Westerlo. Anderlecht completed their strong run-in, claiming third place and a Uefa Cup berth with a 3-1 win over Kortrijk, who were relegated along with Ostend.
Genk have qualified for the preliminary rounds of the Champions' League - and they still have an outside chance of a domestic double. They trail Lierse 4-2 after the first leg of their cup semi-final.
Genk's chairman, Edgard Troonbeeckx, said it was a proud moment for the young club, formed through the merger of Waterschei and Winterslag. "It's a wonderful result," he said. "Over the whole season we deserve to be champions. It's the culmination of a lot of hard work and today was the icing on the cake."
The title-winning coach, Aime Antheunis, said: "This is just incredible. This is all we could have asked for." He will not be around next term, though, to supervise Genk's European challenge - he is off to Anderlecht.
Netherlands
WILLEM II Tilburg secured a Champions' League place for the first time by beating Cambuur Leeuwarden 2-0 in the Dutch First Division on Sunday. Second-placed Willem II put themselves beyond the reach of third-placed Vitesse Arnhem with one game remaining. Feyenoord had already sealed the title.
While his father Alex was steering Manchester United to another Premiership success, the former Wolves midfielder Darren Ferguson was scoring the first goal for Sparta Rotterdam in their 5-0 win over Fortuna Sittard - a result which was a big boost for Sparta in their battle against relegation. NAC Breda and RKC Waalwijk, who are both below Sparta, are the other teams also danger of the drop.
Turkey
GORDON MILNE, the former Liverpool and England defender, yesterday lost his job as coach of the Turkish club Trabzonspor.
Milne, 62, with a wealth of experience working in Turkey, arrived at the Black Sea side a year ago on a two-year contract. But Trabzonspor are a distant fourth in the First Division and Milne has not managed to forge a consistent team.
Milne also coached the Turkish sides Besiktas, whom he led to a cup and league double in 1990, and Bursaspor. He was also the manager of Coventry City and Leicester City.
Germany
BAYERN MUNICH'S Bixente Lizarazu, who has been absent with a knee injury for seven weeks, plans to return when the European Cup finalists entertain VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
"I hope I can play for at least 45 minutes," the French World Cup left- back said after training yesterday.
The Bayern coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, said it was too early to know if Lizarazu would be fit to play in the European Cup final against Manchester United next week. "He can only play if he has no problems against Bochum," Hitzfeld said.
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