Foreign airport names can confuse all of us, but for two football fans, confusing Genk with Ghent in Belgium caused them to miss their team's victory and end up 95 miles away from where the action was taking place.
The Liverpool fans were planning to watch the team playing Belgian side Genk in the UEFA Champions League Group E match. They had originally planned to travel to Genk with two other friends, but when the person in charge of organising the travel cancelled at the last minute, they hastily booked it themselves. Having spent around £200 (€231) each on train and match tickets, Rob from London and Lee from Leicester confused the destination and flew to Ghent instead, home to Gent who also play their football in the Belgian Pro League.
As they passed by the stadium in Ghent en route from the airport to their hotel, the sports fans were surprised when the taxi driver didn't really respond to their comment that they were going there that evening to watch Liverpool play. "When we arrived we didn't see any Liverpool supporters, which kind of aroused our suspicions," Rob told BBC Sport. "Then we were sitting having dinner about an hour before kick-off and we said to one of the waiters, who was a Gent supporter, 'We are playing you guys tonight'. He went, 'No you're not,' and that was when we realised the error of our ways."
It was too late to travel to the right city, so the disappointed fans watched the match in an Irish bar, although the upside was that they had a great evening and Liverpool won the match. And in even better news, they have now been invited back to Belgium by the Genk club to watch the Genk versus Gent match in January, where they will enjoy a VIP dinner and guided tour of the stadium.
