[NoSkillz]

Wed. March 9, 2022

Champions League - First Knockout Round Second Leg
Anderlecht (1) vs. (2) Dover
Stade Constant Vanden Stock, Brussels, Belgium

Betting Odds: Anderlecht: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Dover: 7-4
Past Meetings: 1W 0D 0L

Anderlecht were on a four game run without a win but just got off the schneid with a 1-0 win in league play on the weekend. We have a slim one goal cushion going into the second leg but we need a goal here - a 1-0 loss won't work obviously as we'd lose on away goals. That said, I'm going to utilize a counter attacking mentality to start, something that has worked for road games against favoured clubs.

A few changes - we'll start Giorgos Gesios up front today with Wayne Rooney - I want some "cultured" players in the game today and Gesios scores at will for his country. Salim Loucif and Arsene Bamba are also back in the starting lineup.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, P. Tjiuoro, Mancini, K. Kalfas, C. Murray, Z. Bardi, P. Moses

Anderlecht once again come out in a 4-5-1 formation with Chiquinho at striker and the dangerous Said Henni at AML. Interestingly enough, their starting keeper Bill Weiss is hurt and they have to go with their two star backup. Hmmm. Lets get some shots today boys! My assistant wants to encourage the lads and I think that's a good strategy since we need a goal here. Lets do it!

2' - Right off the bat we get a glorious chance, as Bamba feeds Gesios in the box and his shot is barely wide.

7' - Wilke is now called upon to make a great save off a blast from Said Henni.

10' - Rooney is taken down hard and Anderlecht get a yellow card. Rooney has the dreaded cross above his name but he can continue for now.

19' - Anderlecht are the better team right now and it's scaring me. They work a deadly counter with Henni speeding down field. He gets off a hard blast that Wilke saves but there's a rebound and it's Henni again with the volley but Wilke makes that save too. We're generating nothing so far.

20' - Cairney with a yellow card.

35' - We're settling down here and Gesios gets a header off a Rocca cross and Bartos is finally called upon to make a save.

45'+2 - Rooney with a yellow now. Wilke has to make another save off the free kick.

HALFTIME - This is VERY dangerous. We're edging possession with 52% but they are really outshooting us 15-7 (8-1 on target). What a dangerous scoreline - I can go in two directions with this: I can move to a control mentality to try to get more chances on their young goalkeeper but that will open things up for them - we've kept Chiquinho in check so far but Henni has been very dangerous for them. Or we can continue to sit back and hope that they press forward and give us some counter chances. For now, I'll stick with the counter. I tell the team I'm content for now.

54' - Rayane Hamon gets a yellow card for fouling Henni. They get a free kick and it eventually comes to their midfielder Gaucho and he scores…but he's offsides! No goal!

57' - Holy crap. Now Said Henni takes a pass and scores and HE IS OFFSIDES TOO! Two goals disallowed in three minutes and the fans are getting UNRULY!

58' - I take out Wayne Rooney and bring in Paul Moses.

67' - Okay this is a first. Anderlecht score AGAIN and AGAIN it's called offsides. This one looks sketchy…man, on the replay it looked like he got back onside before the pass was delivered but yeah, I'll take it. We're under fire and I don't know what to do. We need to hold on.

74' - Disaster. We lose the ball at midfield and it's sent over our defence. Wilke is in no mans land and Chiquinho beats him to the ball at the top of the area and heads it into the open net. Sigh. ANDERLECHT GOAL 0-1 (2-2 ON AGGREGATE)

We need to attack.

77' - Arsene Bamba takes the ball off a free kick and walks through the defence and into the area and we finally get a glorious chance but Bartos is up to the challenge and makes the key save. We get a corner on the play and Rocca's cross is to the far post and Contreras but he's FOULED. THAT'S A PENALTY!!! Oh my god…it's Neil Cairney stepping up….and he SCORES!!!!!! OMG!!! DOVER GOAL 1-1 (3-2 ON AGGREGATE)

We're back to a counter! HOLD ON!!!

84' - Time to milk time. Neil Cairney is out and Mancini is in.

Anderlecht is in a weird 5-2-3 formation.

Three minutes of injury time.

90'+1 - We work possession and Rocca springs Moses up field. The youngster speeds in and shoots but Bartos makes the fantastic save! Wow!

90'+3 - Paulus Tjiuoro is on for Rayane Hamon. BLOW THE WHISTLE!

They get another corner but we clear and that's it!

Anderlecht 1 (2) - (3) 1 Dover
Goals - Neil Cairney PENALTY (7.2)
Assists - Claudio Contreras (6.9)
Man of the Match - Chiquinho (Anderlecht ST - 7.6)
Other Dover Notables - S. Loucif (7.0), Renato Gaucho (7.0), Arsene Bamba (7.0)
Attendance - 25,738

We didn't play great but held 55% of possession. They outshot us 22-16 (11-4 on target) but we are able to get our away goal and the draw to advance by a single goal on aggregate, with help from THREE disallowed Anderlecht goals, one of which was very iffy. Poor Ingo Wilke was BRILLIANT today but gets a 6.4 rating for screwing up big time on Chiquinho's goal. We're on to the next round! Money, money, money, MONEY!!!!

-- Haha - speaking of which, we're given a paltry £2,609,000 for just playing in that round!!! NICE!

-- Neil Cairney will be suspended from our next Champions League match due to yellow card accumulation. Crap.

-- Wayne Rooney, despite having the dreaded cross above his name, has no lingering effects after taking the knock and is fine.

-- Barcelona also move on after beating Ajax 2-1 away and 5-3 on aggregate.



Next Up

-- We reach the FA Cup quarterfinals and host Arsenal at Crabble Athletic Ground.