Anderlecht had to toil, but in the added time they were still able to distance themselves from bottom line Beerschot. Anders Dreyer kicked the purple and white to victory. Earlier, Verschaeren had erased Al-Sahafi’s early opening goal – also in the added time of the first half.
Exciting beats in honor of thirty years of Fuse, a laser show,… And a broken net, which caused the match between Anderlecht and Beerschot to start later. And it must be that the delay caused cold muscles for the home team: they started the game weakly. N’Diaye lost the ball twice, and on the first counter-attack it was a hit. Colassin served Al-Shahafi, who headed the ball – only between Zanka and N’Diaye – over Coosemans into the goal. The Saudi has five goals in the competition: three against Anderlecht, two against Club Brugge.
Photo: BELGIAN
Anderlecht responded with a weak shot from Amuzu and tried to monopolize the ball. There were no clear-cut opportunities, but we continued to watch out for the fast Al-Shahafi on the counter-attack. In the meantime, Beerschot already started stalling for time, which is their right. Henderson went to the ground injured three times before being replaced, and on the other side, Stroeykens’ match was also over after he twisted his ankle following a tackle from Fayed. Verschaeren came to relieve the purple-white turntable. And it was just Verschaeren who tapped in the ball from Foket’s cross just before half time – after 51 minutes and 7 seconds. Only Anderlecht’s second ball between the posts, but just before half-time it was vital.
Card festival
Anderlecht increased its level after the break, but it remained careless in the sixteen. Verschaeren kicked the post, Amuzu shot the rebound wide. And when Amuzu crossed well, both Dolberg and Dreyer missed their control. In the meantime, Beerschot was dealing in yellow cards: one for Shinton for wasting time, and one for Dagba for breaking off a counter-attack. The visitors also got three before half time for almost the same reasons.
Photo: BELGIAN
Kasper Dolberg barely had any space in the box: Mbe Soh and Fayed used all their limbs to limit the top scorer. On the edge. Once they forgot about him, but he headed Amuzu’s cross into the hands of Shinton. The Dane also had a shooting opportunity afterwards, but was hindered too much by Fayed.
David Hubert threw Vazquez in next to Dolberg in the end, and it almost paid off: Amuzu reached the Argentinian at the far post, but Shinton saw through his plan to pass to Dolberg and intervened well. In the final minute it worked: Vazquez headed through and Dreyer pushed the ball in over the corner, the Lotto Park went into ecstasy.
Anderlecht keep the gap with Genk and Club at eight and four points respectively, and jump over Antwerp to third place. Beerschot remains the only last place and sees the gap in the penultimate place grow to six points.
Photo: BELGIAN
RSC Anderlecht: Coosemans, Foket, Simic, Zanka, N’Diaye (79′ Augustinsson), Rits (79′ Vazquez), Dendoncker, Stroeykens (45′ Verschaeren), Dreyer, Amuzu, Dolberg
BeerschotShinton, Constantopoulos, Fayed, Mbe Soh, Plat, Dagba (67′ Weymans), Al-Ghamdi, Henderson (41′ Cagro), Verlinden (83′ Keita), Al-Sahafi (83′ Martha), Colassin (67′). Reyners)
Goals: 7′ Al-Sahafi (Colassin) 0-1, 45′ Verschaeren (Foket) 1-1, 90′ Dreyer (Vazquez) 2-1
Yellow cards: 25′ Al-Ghamdi, 30′ Konstantopoulos, 45′ Colassin, 56′ Shinton, 63′ Dagba, 82′ Cagro, 84′ Keita, 84′ Zanka
Red cards: no
Referee: Erik Lambrechts
Spectators: 20.000
