The moment we've been waiting for has arrived, as our 35-time reigning men's football champions have started their campaign in the revamped UEFA Europa League. For the sixth year in a row, we will be playing in the main draw of a European competition. Pascal Jansen's side played against Belgian Anderlecht today in the first round, whom we had beaten 1-0 on 9 August 1995 with a goal from Zoran Kuntics in a Champions League qualifier, a crucial result in our first ever qualification for the Chapmions League then. We wanted to make similar happy memories this time in Belgium. Our Dutch manager stated on Tuesday that Lotto Park's turf was not the best, but that was no excuse for the match, our goal was to win this time too, or at least to collect one point. We started with Dibusz - Botka, Cissé, Szalai G., Ramírez - Rommens, Abu Fani - Zachariassen, Kady, Traoré - Varga B. Four Hungarians were also in the starting line-up, while Brazilian Matheus Saldanha, who scored against Budafok and MTK, was also on the bench.

First half

The match started in the pouring rain, with Austrian referee Weinberger blowing the whistle. Our team in green and white kit kicked off the ball, while the home team opted for a turquoise colour scheme for Wednesday evening. Anderlecht attacked first, but Botka blocked the cross by Amuzu. At the other end, Barnabás Varga was well tackled by the Anderlecht goalkeeper, who could only save to a throw-in. In the 4th minute, Botka appeared on the right flank and his cross found Traore, who sent a defender clear with a cold-blooded flick and fired into another full-back from 6 meters.
It was a great situation. In the 6th minute Dolberg shot from the penalty area, it was a weak ball and Dibusz easily got on the end of it. But two minutes later, Edozie's flat shot needed a bravura save from our captain. In the 13th minute, Kady was roughly tackled for a late entry, but the home player was not even booked. In the 17th minute, Kady had the ball in front of him twice inside the home penalty area, but unfortunately he made the wrong decision both times and the chances went begging. In the 18th minute, Danish international Kasper Dolberg turned down Cisse, who pulled down his opponent and received his first yellow card of the match. In the 20th minute, Kady was in an even better position after a beautiful trick, but this time he shot from 6 metres instead of a pass - Abu Fani had come empty in the middle - and the ball came off the block. In the middle of the first half Anderlecht had a free kick after Ramírez had handled, and Dolberg headed over from 5 metres. In the 25th minute, Traoré was the first to run, but his ball was no good for Rommens, and Edozie had a shot at the end of the counter, which was cleared by Dibusz, and Sardella missed the rebound from 18 metres. In the 32nd minute, Zachariassen prevented a counter-attack with a pull-back and was also booked. Ten minutes before the break, Traoré broke into the penalty area, his shot from 10 metres bounced to a corner, from which Barnabás Varga shot after a bit of 'pinball', but it bounced over and we could not get a repeat from the corner. In the 37th minute, Amuzu received a good ball on the right, drove it towards the baseline, and finally his sharp shot was cleared by Dibusz.

Soon after Amuzu crossed while falling and he got injured. He was replaced by Nilson Angulo in the 40th minute. A few minutes before the break, the ball was again in front of Kady, this time our Brazilian player shot, it seemed that the ball was cut off a defender's hand... Shortly afterwards, Dolberg roughly stamped on Cisse, leading to a free kick, although a stronger colour than yellow could have come out of referee Weinberger's pocket. In the 44th minute Rommens tested Coosemans, without success. We went for the break at 0-0.

Second half

Neither head coach made a substitution at the break.The first ten minutes of the second period were not very exciting, with the two sides battling it out in the rain and the goals not being threatened. Then in the 57th minute Zachariassen got on the ball and set up Barnabas Varga well, but our striker's low shot was weak and went wide of the target. In the 61st minute, Anderlecht took the lead out of nowhere: a cross in the penalty area was hit by Dibusz and the ball went to Verschaeren who shot into the right bottom corner (1-0). The restart was not good either, first Dibusz saved Dolberg's header, then Botka faulted Edozie, which resulted in a penalty for the Belgian club: Dolberg slotted the penalty (2-0) in the 66th minute. Anderlecht made three substitutions in the 69th minute, and we did the same in the 71st: Abu Fani, Zachariassen, Kady went off, Ben Romdhane, Saldanha and Maiga came on. Soon afterwards Botka received a yellow card. Towards the end Civic and Gartenmann came on for Botka and Ramírez . In the last ten minutes we received a one-man advantage as Angulo kicked Gartenmann first in the 78th minute and then in the 81st minute, the two yellows he received being exchanged for a red. In the 86th minute, we converted the man advantage into a goal: the ball was bombed towards the goal by Adama Traoré, and it only bounced a bit from a defender into the net (2-1). In the minutes of extra time, no more goals were scored, and unfortunately we left Belgium without a point. We continue against Tottenham in UEL round 2 on Thursday 3 October at 18:45.