Belgian champion Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht will switch to Europa League after finishing on third position in Group D of the Champions League, but now they must focus on the upcoming Round of 32, where they will play vs Russian Dynamo Moscow, which won Group E, winning all of their six games there. “White-blues” from Russian capital should be praised, because the team started from the third qualificaiton round of Europa League and Dynamo is still undefeated – 8 wins and 2 draws in their 10 games so far, including the qualification rounds. Great record by Stanislav Cherchesov’s squad, who will play their first competitive game in 2015, since the Russian Premier League starts in March. Now Dynamo will chase another victory, after 6 wins over the squads of PSV Eindhoven, Estoril and Panathinaikos, who were all together in Group E of Europa League, where Dynamo Moscow finished with goal difference 9:3, and with full asset of points – 18 out from 18.
Anderlecht was in contention with the teams of Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray, and the fate of the Belgian champions was to continue his European campaign in Europa League. “Sporting” finished on third position with 6 points, but Anderlecht can be happy because the team ended his losing streak on “Constant Vanden Stock Stadium” in Brussels (6 games), when in the last round Anderlecht won against Galatasaray with 2:0, and now the squad of Besnik Hasi must concentrate on their efforts on all three fronts – Belgian Pro League, Belgian Cup and Europa League.
Both teams will meet for first time in UEFA competition and we expect to see how productive can both sides be. Anderlecht will have the advantage that they are in good rhythm and the team is with just 1 defeat in his last 14 competitive games (0:2 vs Standard Liege in the domestic league), while as we mentioned Russian Premier League starts in March, so this will be the first official game for Dynamo since their last Europa League clash – 0:1 win over PSV Eindhoven, in Netherlands. Of course Dynamo played some friendly games, in which they remain undefeated, but now we will see the real face of the russian side.
Betting prediction, possible squads and injuries in Anderlecht and Dynamo Moscow – UEFA Europa League 19.02.2015
Actually only the home team manager will have selection headache for the upcoming fixture. Former Albanian midfielder Besnik Hasi won’t be able to use the injured defender Chancel Mbemba, and the attackers Idrissa Sylla, Matias Suarez, Ibrahima Conte, while the good news for him come from the fact that Steven Defour is back in training, and the medical staff of the team, along with the coaching stuff, will decide how fit is Defour to start vs Dynamo, or he will be rested on the bench, with a possibility to enter on the pitch during the game. However, Anderlecht still have enough quality and we can see that from their last 14 results (all competitions) – 10 victories, 3 draws and only 1 defeat. At home Anderlecht is with 8 wins and 4 draws in his last 12 matches, and we expect another strong performance from the hosts.
Dynamo Moscow are yet to show their best, and we don’t expect wonders from them in their first official game in 2015, against a team, who already has 8 games this year, Of course the workload will be more for the hosts, but as far as we know Belgian football, Anderlecht will be fully concentrated on the upcoming game and we expect better performance from the hosts. We will pick “Draw No Bet” on the hosts.
Possible starting XI:
Anderlecht: Proto – Vanden Borre, Deschacht, Colin, N’Sakala – Defour, Tielemans – Najar, Marin, Praet – Mitrovic. (4-2-3-1)
Dynamo Moscow: Gabulov – Büttner, Samba, Douglas, Hubocan – Vainqueur, Yusupov – Dzsudzak, Ionov, Valbuena – Kokorin. (4-2-3-1)
Referee: Felix Zwayer from Germany.