Redbull Salzburg Football Club striker Patson Daka and Midfielder Enock Mwepu put up an excellent performance in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) as they helped their team win 4-1 against the home club K.R.C GENK FC at the Luminous Arena in Genk, Belgium.
Daka could have opened the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark with only a keeper to beat after team mate Domink Szoblaszai put him on goal but his efforts went wide.
However, Salzburg’s first goal came in the 43th minute as the 2017 CAF young player of the year Daka, pounced on a rebound after Genk’s goalkeeper Gaëtan Coucke failed to deal with a Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick which fail into Daka’s path and made no mistake finishing off with ease to register his first UCL goal.
Shortly before the stroke of half time, Daka’s teammate Mwepu placed a nice pass to Takumi Minamino who fired the ball in the bottom right corner to give Salzburg a 2-0 lead heading into second half.
However, Daka’s night came to an end in the 60th minute as he was replaced by the league’s second top scorer with 8 goals Erling Haaland.
Hee-Chan Hwang added a third in the 69th minute as he finished off Haaland’s well-timed cross.
K.R.C Genk FC pulled one back in the 85th minute through Mbwana Samatta following an error by Brazilian goalkeeper Carlos Coronel.
Mwepu recorded a second assist of the game with a short though ball pass in the box to Haaland who lobed the keeper to extend the lead to 4-1 against the home side in the 87th minute.
Patson Daka became the first Zambian player to score in the UEFA Champions League since the change of name and format in 1992/93 and second since the start of the tournament after Kalusha Bwalya who scored for PSV Eindhoven FC in 1991.