De Bruyne looks to take Blues scalp

De Bruyne looks to take Blues scalp

Published Oct. 31, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

Genk star Kevin De Bruyne has insisted his links with Chelsea would not stop him trying to pile on the misery for Andre Villas-Boas' men in Tuesday night's Champions League clash at the Cristal Arena.

De Bruyne has another chance to convince the Blues to sign him in January after his latest audition fell flat in the Belgian champions' 5-0 Group E thrashing at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago.

Chelsea have long been linked with the 20-year-old after scouting him on several occasions and he could hardly be going into Saturday's game with more confidence having scored his first professional hat-trick in Genk's amazing comeback against Club Brugge on Saturday.

Mario Been's men were 4-2 down but ran out 5-4 victors, with De Bruyn netting both the equaliser and the winner.

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The same day saw Chelsea on the wrong end of an equally astonishing fightback as Arsenal twice came from behind to win 5-3 at Stamford Bridge.

That completed a week from hell for the Blues and their captain John Terry - and De Bruyne today vowed to give everything to inflict what would be an even greater humiliation on Tuesday's opponents.

"I will think about only doing my best for Genk," said De Bruyne.

"My 'relationship' with Chelsea is not important.

"Nothing is signed yet, we will see."

He added of his own form: "We gained a lot of confidence in the Bruges game and I scored three times.

"But we won as a team and we have to take on Chelsea as a team.

"What have we got to lose? Playing against this type of world-class team is a player's dream."

Genk's win at Brugge was their second in three matches following four straight defeats, including the thrashing at Stamford Bridge.

Been said: "We take with us the excellent feeling of our victory over Bruges last Saturday. That is very important.

"Of course, we play against a club that can easily line up three different teams, all of them with Europe's top players. But we will take on the game differently than the first leg.

"We showed way too much respect for our opponents. We played backward instead of forward.

"At home, in front of a capacity crowd we will have our chances, I'm sure.

"The only thing we have to do is to cash in on at least one of them. And we do have the quality to do that."

Genk have further selection problems after being decimated by injury two weeks ago.

Been added: "Of course, I will have to shuffle around my team yet again.

"(Daniel) Pudil is suspended and (Christian) Benteke is not eligible to play.

"That's why I called up Stef Peeters and Willem Ofori.

"Anele (Ngcongca) has trained today and if I line him up, he will be ready."

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