GAMES Anderlecht won 2-1 against Ferencvaros in their first Europa League match. A little past the hour, purple-white scored twice in short order. Things heated up in the closing stages after an unjustified red card for Angulo and Traore's tying goal.
Anderlecht started the game with good intentions. It immediately showed dominance over Ferencvaros, appropriated the ball and played forward football. In the last quarter of the pitch they still stalled, but Edozie and Dolberg did not go unsympathetically for their chances. Around the half-hour mark, Ferencvaros got more of a foothold, but they did not get further than a few blocked attempts. 0-0 at half-time made sense, but the performance was encouraging.
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Continue reading After the break, mercenary Edozie showed his worth. After a breakthrough on the left, he laid back to the pale Stroeyken, who found Verschaeren and the number ten placed the ball beautifully into the bottom left corner. Hard it was not, precise all the more. Goalkeeper Dibusz couldn't reach it. 1-0 you could feel the relief. It got even better when five minutes later Edozie was hooked in the sixteen. Dolberg kicked the eleven-metre perfectly into the corner where Verschaeren had already scored.
After the 2-0, Anderlecht controlled the game and seemed to have the game won. Both teams made a triple substitution. Ten minutes before the whistle, Angulo received two (unjustified) yellow cards in a short space of time. To make matters worse, not much later Simic headed a shot by Traore right in front of Coosemans into his own goal. Afterwards, the Anderlecht goalkeeper drew on his experience to buy some time here and there and steer the victory safely into the harbour.
