Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News 
In a comparatively uneventful affair, AZ Alkmaar secured a slim 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 providers of forwards Ruben van Bommel and Mexx Merdink, and midfielder Sven Mijnans.
Rome Jayden Owusu-Oduro was in aim. The again 4 consisted of Seiya Malkuma, Wouter Goes, Alexandre Penetra and David Moller Wolfe. Peer Koopmeiners and Jordy Clasie paired up in the course 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 price discussing from a impartial standpoint 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 go away the pitch after lower than 9 minutes. The truth that it occurred so early within the sport in all probability performed its half, nevertheless it’s nonetheless onerous to elucidate why precisely referee Rade Obrenovic from Slovenia determined to not ebook Bergvall for lacking the ball and slamming with appreciable power 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 internet.
The house aspect had a number of promising conditions that might’ve resulted of their lead being doubled within the first half, they usually managed the sport with beautiful ease right down to its last whistle, limiting the Premier League aspect to only one shot heading in the right direction, 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 totally 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 means his gamers entered the competition.
“I don’t assume it’s a matter of effort or angle. I don’t assume it’s going on the market and never making an attempt, however like I mentioned we didn’t actually come to grips and have the appropriate mindset to sort out an away fixture in Europe,” he mentioned.
“It’s at all times powerful and we clearly conceded the aim, which was a disappointing set of occasions. However even after that we didn’t actually quiet down into the sport in any respect.
“You’ll face some strain while 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 constructive in that we didn’t let the sport get away from us,” the Australian tactician concluded.
