Eight goals in five games: Paul Onuachu thrashes Marco van Bommel’s plots with brilliant brace in Genk win

The Nigerian striker lived up to his pre-match billing as his double shot down RAFC in the most anticipated clash of the weekend

Paul Onuachu delivered a man-of-the-match performance to spur KRC Genk to a deserving 3-1 win at Royal Antwerp on Sunday afternoon.

Onuachu was one of the talking points ahead of the face-off between league leaders Genk and second-place Antwerp.

Only one point separated the two sides before kick-off, and a win would have seen the hosts overtake the Limburgers at the top of the Belgian Jupiler Pro League.

Antwerp manager Marco van Bommel and defender Toby Alderweireld had shown confidence in the team’s plans to keep Onuachu silent in the encounter.

But the Super Eagles striker had other ideas as he hit the target in the 33rd minute to make it two-nil for the visitors, 20 minutes after Bryan Heynen had opened the scoring.

Vincent Janssen halved the deficit for Antwerp just before halftime.

However, Onuachu had the last laugh as he powered home a header off the post midway into the second half.

It was all Genk needed to claim all three points and establish a four-point advantage over Antwerp.

With his latest brace, Onuachu has now scored eight goals in his last five matches.

It is an important return to form for the striker, who battled through injury during the preseason and did not muster a goal in his first five league matches.