New victory propels Anderlecht into the Europa League
FRIDAY, 28 AUGUST 2026, 13:41 - D.A.B.
GAMES Anderlecht once again made light work of Kairat Almaty with a 3-0 win and will play in the Europa League group stage. When the score was still 0-0, Almaty came close to taking the lead, but after that Cvetkovic (from the spot), Sikan and Biancone converted three of the many chances Anderlecht fashioned on the night. The gala game many supporters had been hoping for did not materialise straight away. Anderlecht did not want to take any unnecessary risks and end up in a thriller, and Almaty looked a little better than they had last week.
Even so, Anderlecht created the most and the best chances, all through Cvetkovic. The Serbian striker twice found either goalkeeper Kalmurza or a Kazakh foot in the way. Once, the alarm bells rang loud at Anderlecht. After 23 minutes, Mata was played in beautifully, but Coosemans came quickly off his line and spared Anderlecht a potentially nervy spell. In stoppage time at the end of the first half, the purple and white side finally took a deserved lead through a converted Cvetkovic penalty after a handball by Almaty following one of Anderlecht's many corners.
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Continue reading After the break, Kalmurza initially kept Sikan from scoring, but in the 53rd minute the breakthrough finally came. Sikan neatly beat a defender and smashed the ball into the net after being picked out by Kana. With the score at 2-0, Bruno immediately opted to make three substitutions, including the youngsters Kalonji and Ojea. Ten minutes later, Winkler and Antman also came on. Biancone made it 3-0 from a corner in the 70th minute. The game had long since been decided, but with all the Anderlecht substitutes eager to show their worth, the closing stages still produced plenty of action and several more efforts on goal. Anderlecht has already achieved one important objective this season: reaching the Europa League. But on Sunday, another match awaits, and in truth the first real test of the campaign: the away trip to Union.
