In a comparatively uneventful affair, AZ Alkmaar secured a slender benefit of their Europa League spherical of 16 conflict with Tottenham Hotspur by beating the North Londoners 1-0 within the first leg on the AFAS Stadium, courtesy of an own-goal from Lucas Bergvall within the 18th minute.
Groups
AZ head coach Maarten Martens was with out the companies of forwards Ruben van Bommel and Mexx Merdink, and midfielder Sven Mijnans.
Rome Jayden Owusu-Oduro was in objective. The again 4 consisted of Seiya Malkuma, Wouter Goes, Alexandre Penetra and David Moller Wolfe. Peer Koopmeiners and Jordy Clasie paired up in the midst of the park, whereas the trio of Ernest Poku, Zico Buurmeester and Mayckel Lahdo supported former Tottenham man Troy Parrott in assault.
Spurs supervisor Ange Postecoglou missed a pair of defenders in Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin, in addition to a pair of attackers, particularly Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski. Striker Dominic Solanke and centre-back Cristian Romero, classed beforehand as doubts, made the bench, together with the likes of Pedro Porro, Micky van de Ven, Yves Bissouma, and Pape Matar Sarr.
Guglielmo Vicario stood between the posts. Kevin Danso and Archie Grey paired up within the coronary heart of defence, flanked by Future Udogie and Djed Spence. Rodrigo Bentancur anchored the midfield, joined by Bergvall and James Maddison. Up entrance, striker Mathys Tel had the help of Brennan Johnson and captain Son Heung-min.
The sport
There actually isn’t a lot to be mentioned concerning the match itself. The one moments value discussing from a impartial viewpoint occurred early on and had one factor in frequent – Bergvall.
The Spurs midfielder was fortunate to keep away from a yellow card for an completely reckless problem on Lahdo, which pressured the AZ man to depart the pitch after lower than 9 minutes. The truth that it occurred so early within the recreation most likely performed its half, nevertheless it’s nonetheless arduous to elucidate why precisely referee Rade Obrenovic from Slovenia determined to not e-book Bergvall for lacking the ball and slamming with appreciable drive into his opponent’s ankle.
Due to this fact, what occurred 9 minutes later can solely be described as a little bit of justice, as his clumsy try at a clearance flew in a excessive loop over Vicario and into his personal web.
The house facet had a number of promising conditions that would’ve resulted of their lead being doubled within the first half, they usually managed the sport with gorgeous ease all the way down to its remaining whistle, limiting the Premier League facet to only one shot on course, regardless of Posecoglou’s males having the ball for 62% of the time.
It was a vastly underwhelming efficiency from the Lilly-whites, and until they present a totally completely different face within the second leg, they don’t have any enterprise being within the quarterfinals of a European competitors.
Postecoglou laments gamers mindset
Chatting with the press after the sport, Postecoglou fired robust criticism on the method his gamers entered the competition.
“I don’t suppose it’s a matter of effort or angle. I don’t suppose it’s going on the market and never attempting, however like I mentioned we didn’t actually come to grips and have the suitable mindset to deal with an away fixture in Europe,” he mentioned.
“It’s at all times robust and we clearly conceded the objective, which was a disappointing set of occasions. However even after that we didn’t actually calm down into the sport in any respect.
“You will face some stress if you play away from house in Europe and climate the storm and familiarize yourself with it, however we by no means actually did in order that was a disappointment.
“It’s solely 1-0 so I suppose that’s a optimistic in that we didn’t let the sport get away from us,” the Australian tactician concluded.
