Fighting AZ loses at Tottenham Hotspur and is ready in the Europa League

After the elimination of Feyenoord and PSV in Champions League and earlier on the Thursday evening Ajax, AZ, the last Dutch asset on the European stage, was also eliminated.

In the eighth finals of the Europa League, the Alkmaarders lost the return against Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 and with that, the last sobbing men of trainer Maarten Martens, after last week’s 1-0, just had a shortage to be allowed to repent.

AZ started with a battered line of attack at the Karwei in London. Jayden Addai and Ruben van Bommel were already in the infirmary and last week in the home game Mayckel Lahdo was added. The winger was kicked out of the game in the initial phase by Lucas Bergvall, who worked the ball in his own goal not much later.

Because Lahdo’s replacement DESSO Kasius also did not reach the end of the match in Alkmaar and was not yet recovered, Martens made an appeal to the just returned Ibrahim Sadiq for the return.

However, it was – and that was foreseen of course – especially the defense of AZ who had to be wary against the number thirteen of the high -excited English competition, which can only provide a disappointing season with a shine through the Europa League.

AZ remained up effortlessly, but went wrong after half an hour. Wouter Goes wanted to clean up by the sidelines, but shot against Son Heung-Min, after which the ball via intermediate station Dominic Solanke ended up at Wilson Odobert. He extracted mercilessly: 1-0.

AZ AZ managed not to do much. The excellent last week but in the completion Ernest Poku did not occur in the play, Sadiq did not get the ball under control in a promising position and a slider by Zico Buurmeester missed the right direction.

The second half had barely started whether the Mees de Wit came in for Sadiq wasted the ball to James Maddison in midfield, who immediately steamed to the enemy goal and found the corner flawlessly after a combination with Son: 2-0.

AZ could no longer limit itself to defending and soon got a chance, but Troy Parrott needed too much time to get a shot. The rapped Poku had to make it to a failure against the even faster Oranje-international Micky van de Ven. After the corner that followed, the slider of captain Jordy Clasie went just next.

Van de Ven had just been brought to the side by manager Ange Postecoglou when after a clumsy misunderstanding between mountain barrier – again he – and Odobert – the man of the 1-0 – Peer Koopmeiners suddenly came into shooting position. The chance in the 63rd minute was well-spent on the Noord-Hollander: 2-1.

However, the Spurs were by no means excited and kept the pressure on the boiler. That paid off fifteen minutes before time: Solanke extended the heel a pass from Djed Spence, after which Odobert had his second of the evening before entering: 3-1.

But AZ also showed resilience. Parrott took goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario under fire, after which De Wit saw his efforts in the rebound turned by Yves Bissouma. Substitute Mexx Meerdink was just a little length to head a cross towards the goal.

The final offensive provided another chance for the young substitute Kees Smit, but the desired connection goal was not forthcoming.