AEL Limassol FC eked out a narrow advantage against RSC Anderlecht in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off.

In front of 13.000 fans travelling from the southern home coastal town of Limassol to capital Nicosia`s GSP stadium, the Cyprus champions beat 2-1 the Belgian club, in the first leg of the tournament.

Dosa Junior headed AEL into a 34th-minute before Dieudonne Mbokani fired in the 62nd minute to equalise for Anderlecht.

Despite the best effort of the Cypriots to hold on to the clean sheet, Anderlecht were simply too good not to get a precious away goal. After receiving the ball at the top of the box, Dieumerci Mbokani cleverly chipped the ball up and around a defender and beat goalkeeper Matias Degra with a quickly volley shot inside the far post.

 Ten minutes later a shot from substitute Rui Miguel went in off goalkeeper Silvio Proto to give AEL a lead to take to Belgium.

Belgian side Anderlecht got an away goal, but still have some work to do in the second leg of the Champions League playoff  It was a physical match, with seven yellow cards and one red card that set things up nicely for the return leg next week.

Things then proceeded to get worse for Anderlecht. Less than a minute after being subbed off the pitch, forward Milan Jovanovic managed to rase a ruckus on the bench, kicking water bottles around, and received a second yellow card and sending off from the match referee.

Jovanovic had been subbed because of an early yellow card for time wasting in order to protect him for the second leg. Anderlecht’s goalkeeper Silvio Proto raced across the pitch to yell at his teammate as he walked down the tunnel. The only positive is since he was already subbed out, Anderlecht didn’t go a man down.

The return leg will be played next Tuesday (August 28) at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels.