Anderlecht throws out maximum in minute 96

GAMES

No twelve out of twelve for Anderlecht in the Europa League. After a dragon of a match, Stroeykens seemed to give Anderlecht the win after all with a wonderful goal. Until deep into injury time N'Diaye scored an unfortunate own-goal.

Coach David Hubert left Stroeykens, the engine of a strong Anderlecht on Sunday, on the bench and it showed in the early stages. Anderlecht was slow to get into the game and was lucky that an Ikauniks goal was disallowed after four minutes for prior offside. Halfway through the first half, Anderlecht scored out of nowhere. After a nice action, Amuzu found Degreef. He served Dolberg and the Dane controlled the ball. Only he had fouled his defender before. The goal was rightly disallowed.

The match rippled on and Rigas did not have much trouble holding off Anderlecht. Even better: the biggest chances were for the home team and Anderlecht had to be grateful to goalkeeper Coosemans. Shortly before half-time he saved a header by Njie and after the break he had a very good reflex when Kouadio appeared alone in front of him.

On the hour, coach Hubert responded with a triple switch. But instead of bringing some extra punch up front, he switched position for position. The substitute Stroeykens did provide more attacking fire. In the final quarter, the purple and white came more emphatically in front of Ondoa's goal. The home team was getting tired. Five minutes before time, Stroeykens thought his moment had come: take the ball, turn around his axis and curl deliciously into the top corner with his left. More beautiful and pure is hardly possible.

Victory seemed assured, until in minute 96 Rigas once again appeared in front of Coosemans' goal. The Anderlecht goalie first tapped Markhiev's shot against the post. The Latvians immediately kicked the ball back in front of goal and N'Diaye unluckily tapped in his own goal. 1-1 and thus no more maximum for purple and white in the Europa League.

Score: 1-1

Goal(s):85' Stroeykens (0-1), 90+6' N'Diaye (1-1, own)

Rigas FS: Ondoa, Njie (59' Stuglis), Prenga, Balodis (90' Saligadze), Savalnieks (90' Osuagwu), Markhiev, Panic, Zelenkovs, Odisharia, Ikaunieks, Kouadio (59' Ndjiki)

Anderlecht:Coosemans, Sardella (79' Foket), Simic, Zanka, N'Diaye, Rits, Leoni, Degreef (62' Stroeykens), Dreyer (90+1' Verschaeren), Dolberg (62' Dolberg), Amuzu (62' Edozie)

Yellow: 23' Ikaunieks, 67' Simic, 73' Coosemans

Red: /

Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (N-Mac.)

Stadium: Daugavas

Source: © Internal source