In a relatively uneventful affair, AZ Alkmaar secured a narrow advantage in their Europa League round of 16 clash with Tottenham Hotspur by beating the North Londoners 1-0 in the first leg at the AFAS Stadium, courtesy of an own-goal from Lucas Bergvall in the 18th minute.
Teams
AZ head coach Maarten Martens was without the services of forwards Ruben van Bommel and Mexx Merdink, and midfielder Sven Mijnans.
Rome Jayden Owusu-Oduro was in goal. The back four consisted of Seiya Malkuma, Wouter Goes, Alexandre Penetra and David Moller Wolfe. Peer Koopmeiners and Jordy Clasie paired up in the middle of the park, while the trio of Ernest Poku, Zico Buurmeester and Mayckel Lahdo supported former Tottenham man Troy Parrott in attack.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou missed a pair of defenders in Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin, as well as a pair of attackers, namely Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski. Striker Dominic Solanke and centre-back Cristian Romero, classed beforehand as doubts, made the bench, along 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 Gray paired up in the heart of defence, flanked by Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence. Rodrigo Bentancur anchored the midfield, joined by Bergvall and James Maddison. Up front, striker Mathys Tel had the support of Brennan Johnson and captain Son Heung-min.
The game
There really isn’t much to be said about the match itself. The only moments worth discussing from a neutral point of view happened early on and had one thing in common – Bergvall.
The Spurs midfielder was lucky to avoid a yellow card for an utterly reckless challenge on Lahdo, which forced the AZ man to leave the pitch after less than nine minutes. The fact that it happened so early in the game probably played its part, but it’s still hard to explain why exactly referee Rade Obrenovic from Slovenia decided not to book Bergvall for missing the ball and slamming with considerable force into his opponent’s ankle.
Therefore, what happened nine minutes later can only be described as a bit of justice, as his clumsy attempt at a clearance flew in a high loop over Vicario and into his own net.
The home side had several promising situations that could’ve resulted in their lead being doubled in the first half, and they controlled the game with stunning ease down to its final whistle, limiting the Premier League side to just one shot on target, despite Posecoglou’s men having the ball for 62% of the time.
It was a vastly underwhelming performance from the Lilly-whites, and unless they show a completely different face in the second leg, they have no business being in the quarterfinals of a European competition.
Postecoglou laments players mindset
Speaking to the press after the game, Postecoglou fired strong criticism at the way his players entered the contest.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of effort or attitude. I don’t think it is going out there and not trying, but like I said we didn’t really come to grips and have the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe,” he said.
“It is always tough and we obviously conceded the goal, which was a disappointing set of events. But even after that we didn’t really settle down into the game at all.
“You are going to face some pressure when you play away from home in Europe and weather the storm and get to grips with it, but we never really did so that was a disappointment.
“It’s only 1-0 so I guess that’s a positive in that we didn’t let the game get away from us,” the Australian tactician concluded.
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