The Belgian club lost the first points in this main tournament of the Europa League. “Anderlecht”, like “Galatasaray” of Istanbul, remained without victories only in the matches played in Riga.
RFS is in 32nd place with two points in four games, while “Anderlecht” is in fifth position with ten points.
RFS secured a point in the sixth minute of stoppage time, when “Anderlecht” player Musa N’Diaj put the ball into his own goal.
Already in the fifth minute of the game, Jānis Ikaunieks put the ball into the opponent’s goal, but Roberts Savalnieks, who assisted him, was clearly behind at the time of receiving the pass and the result remained unchanged. In the next ten minutes, “Anderlecht” took control of the ball and in the 21st minute, after Kasper Dolberg’s shot, the ball went into the goal, but after the involvement of the VAR, a violation was found in the formation of the attack, so the guests did not get the lead.
A little later, in the 24th minute, RFS attack leader Jānis Ikaunieks received a yellow card for dangerous play.
RFS had an excellent opportunity to take the lead in the 39th minute, when after a pass from Lasha Odishary, Haron Njie made a header from close range, but the goalkeeper of the Belgian team, Colin Kosemans, was up to the task.
At the beginning of the second half, in the 50th minute, after an excellent pass by Daniel Balož, Cedric Cuadio ran alone against the opposing goalkeeper, but Kosemans once again prevented the ball from entering the net. Anderlecht’s first good chance to score was in the 70th minute, when Anders Dreyer was unimpeded at the ball after a mistake by the Riga team, and the Dane shot well over the goal.
A little later, RFS goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa neutralized an opponent’s shot from close range. However, in the 85th minute, “Anderlecht” took the lead when the talented Mario Stroikens executed a precise shot at the edge of the penalty area.
At the end of the match, RFS brought the ball into the penalty area several times and reached 1:1 in the sixth minute of injury time. First, the ball hit the goal post, but after Lukas Silagadze’s pass to the front of the goal, Musa N’Diaj hit the ball into his own fortress.
In their Europa League debut, RFS lost 1-4 to FCSB Bucharest, then played 2-2 with one of the favorites of the tournament, Galatasaray Istanbul, and also lost 0-1 away to Eintracht Frankfurt.
“Anderlecht” beat “Ferencvaros” of Budapest 2:1 at home, “Real Sociedad” of San Sebastian from Spain with the same result on the road and “Ludogorets” of Razgrad from Bulgaria with 2:0 at home.
The 36 teams of the main tournament play matches against eight different opponents, meeting two teams from each of the four baskets.
The eight best teams of the main tournament secure places in the round of 16, the owners of the 9th-24th places will fight in the first round of the playoff tournament, while the European Cup season will be over for the other teams. This format is played for the first time in the UEFA Europa League, replacing the traditional group tournament.
The UEFA European League final will be held in the Spanish city of Bilbao on May 25.
Source: www.diena.lv
