Anderlecht Women secured a 2:1 victory over Feyenoord in the UEFA Women's Champions League first qualifying round semi-final on Tuesday. The Dutch visitors took the lead through S. Wijnants in the third minute, but Andelrecht turned the match after T. van Bentem was sent off eighteen minutes in. R. Jonusaite's second-half strike proved decisive, sending the Belgian side through to the next stage.
Andelrecht found themselves chasing the game after Wijnants' early opener, but the momentum shifted when Feyenoord's van Bentem received a red card for a second booking. To be fair, the visitors had created enough to stay in it, but playing a man down changed the complexion of the afternoon. K. Helsen was then substituted at the break, and Feyenoord never quite recovered their shape.
R. van de Lavoir levelled the scores at fifty-five minutes, restoring belief for the home side. Andelrecht grew into the game after that, and R. Jonusaite ended a barren spell with a goal at sixty-nine minutes. Feyenoord threw bodies in the way in the closing stages, but the high line was picked apart more than once. The visitors found it difficult to create clear chances once they were reduced to ten men.
The statistics tell the full story. Andelrecht dominated possession at fifty-nine per cent and registered seven shots on target to Feyenoord's two. The home side completed one hundred and twenty-five attacks compared to seventy-six, while Feyenoord's shot accuracy sat at twenty-nine per cent. Those figures suggest the visitors failed to make their limited opportunities count.
The result sees Andelrecht advance to the quarter-finals of the qualifying competition. Feyenoord's campaign comes to an end despite a respectable showing in the first half. The Dutch side had won three of their last five matches before this defeat, but one mistake at the wrong moment ended it.
