Anderlecht to beat Standard now

SUNDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2012, 23:02 - Skyhawk
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Super Sunday in Belgium with Anderlecht and Club Brugge emerging as winners. Anderlecht beat Standard with 1-2 while the Brugians beat Gent with 1-3. The Mauves now have a 7 points lead on Brugge. Gent follow at 10, Standard at 12


Anderlecht suffered in the first half against Standard. The first Cyriac and Tchite hurt the central defence of the visitors with physical play and fast actions. Biglia was carefully guarded by the home players, so Anderlecht couldn't develop their dominant play.

Though the home side needed a favour from referee Gumieny to open the score. Cyriac escaped from Juhasz' attention, the Hungarian tackled one meter outside the box and yet the ball was placed on the penalty spot anyway: Tchite scored and Juhasz got yellow card number 8 of the season.

The Mauves didn't react and had to watch out for more goals. Proto saved excellent efforts of Mujangi Bia and Tchite. On the other side, Bolat had to stop a weak shot of Mbokani. With just 1-0 at half time, Standard may have deserved more...

The second half started the same as the first one ended. Tchite broke free of the defence and could appear alone in front of Proto, but the linesman had, incorrectly, flagged for offside. Then the Brussels' club took over. Jovanovic grew into the game and helped Biglia, still closely watched by the Standard midfield, in serving the Anderlecht strikers. The pressure rose by a lot of ball possession, but good opportunities remained scarce. The equalizer came unexpectedly: Juhasz was faster on the ball than Bolat and headed the ball into the net.

Standard collapsed and the Belgian record champions believed in the victory. Kljestan almost brought Sporting ahead when he was brought alone in front of Bolat by Suarez. The Turkish goalie saved though and Gillet missed the rebound.

Standard revived just once when Kouyate returned just in time to keep Batshuayi from scoring. But Anderlecht didn't seem impressed. Two minutes before the end, Mbokani avoided the offside trap, outplayed Bolat and gave his team the lead. Standard were knock-out and Anderlecht never came into trouble until the final whistle.



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