45 minutes, that’s all Anderlecht needed to overpower AA Gent. Dolberg once again showed his class with a nice assist, another goal after a steely free kick and a volley after half-time: ten goals for the Dane in his last five games for Anderlecht. The Buffaloes finished the match with nine, after red cards for Torunarigha and Samoise. The latter was especially strict.
Nowadays, a match in the dark in the Lotto Park is equivalent to a light show. And that show – with Bengali fireworks among both groups of supporters – was the starting signal for a pleasant first half. AA Gent, with Roef back in charge and Surdez instead of Fadiga, played football with confidence. The Buffaloes played man to man on the entire field and Anderlecht could not get through. When that succeeded – via Stroeykens and Dolberg – Torunarigha was fined. And the Anderlecht fans also wanted to see him get that second card, after a feather-light contact with Dreyer.
A little earlier, Stroeykens was unable to take advantage of a too short back pass from Delorge, but halfway through the first half Anderlecht was able to celebrate: Rits took a falling ball and it disappeared into the goal via Watanabe. The midfielder celebrated his first goal in a purple shirt, but the goal may go down as an own goal by Watanabe. Ghent responded, but Coosemans fell flat on a shot from Delorge.
Crazy five minutes
The Purple & White did not sit back and continued to press hard, under the impetus of another good Stroeykens and Dolberg. It was no coincidence that the latter offered the 2-0 on a tray to Edozie, with a smart pass. Ghent kept playing football and Coosemans started messing around: he pulled Dean down – just outside the box – and they screamed for a penalty, or at least red for Coosemans. But both Lothar D’Hondt and VAR Nicolas Laforge did not respond to this. When Edozie rolled up the entire Ghent defense on the other side and was stopped by Torunarigha, D’Hondt grabbed his shirt pocket: second yellow and therefore red for the Nigerian defender. He hit the ball very lightly, but his tackle mainly denied Edozie a scoring opportunity. The subsequent free kick was a trick for Dolberg. Just like against Kortrijk, he rammed the ball hard into the goalkeeper’s corner. 3-0 on the stroke of half time, booking for the Buffalos.
Stumbling Brown
Vrancken intervened at halftime and replaced Gandelman and Surdez for Mitrovic and Araujo. Hubert took no risks with Sardella – his ankle made a strange movement after a duel with Brown – and let Foket play against his former team. The Purple & White slowed down a bit, but Ghent was mainly powerless to do anything. Brown illustrated this personally by tripping over his own feet during a rush.
Photo: Isosport
Beating
The Buffaloes had to empty the cup to the bottom: fifteen minutes before the end, Matisse Samoise was also allowed to take a shower after kicking Leoni. A rather strict red card, which ensured that the last fifteen minutes were completely in vain. Dolberg made it 4-0 – his tenth (!) goal in his last five matches for Anderlecht. And the Anderlecht crowd had their olés rolling from the stands when they madly tapped Ghent’s – almost arrogantly. And just with that attack it became 5-0: Kums headed the ball against Araujo, and the ball went into the goal via the body of the Portuguese. Less than a minute later: 6-0, signed Amuzu. It had not been a match for a long time, so extra time was not necessary. At the stroke of the ninetieth minute, Lothar D’Hondt thought he had had enough.
After the solid victory, Anderlecht remains at the top, Ghent is balancing on the edge of the Champions Play-offs and sees Standard in sixth place approaching within a point.
Anderlecht: Coosemans, Sardella (46′ Foket), Simic, Zanka, Ndiaye, Léoni, Rits (62′ Dendoncker), Stroeykens (62′ Verschaeren), Dreyer, Edozie (62′ Amuzu), Dolberg (80′ Vazquez)
AA Gent: Roef, Samoise, Watanabe, Torunarigha, Brown, Delorge, Ito (82′ Gerkens), Gandelman (46′ Mitrovic), Surdez (46′ Araujo), Sonko (66′ Gudjohnsen) and Dean (76′ Kums)
Doelpunten: 23′ Watanabe (owngoal) 1-0, 38′ Edozie 2-0, 45′ Dolberg 3-0, 76′ Dolberg 4-0, 85′ Araujo (owngoal) 5-0, 88′ Amuzu 6-0
Gele kaarten: 9′ Torunarigha, 43′ Torunarigha, 43′ Watanabe, 68′ Samoise
Red cards: 43′ Torunarigha (2x yellow), 75′ Samoise
Referee: Lothar D’hondt
