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sport">With Sam Beukema taking the place of Pantelis Hatzidiakos, AZ started the job in the knowledge that a 1-0 win, unlike previous years, would not be enough. Trainer Pascal Jansen admitted that with Beukema instead of Hatzidiakos he had more scoring ability in his back line, and AZ needed goals.
Martins Indi assist and the error in
sport">The Alkmaarders had taken the 1-0 lead after eighteen minutes, when Vangelis Pavlidis was sent into the depths by Bruno Martins Indi. The Greek striker skillfully dodged the stormed out goalkeeper Nikita Khaikin and shot the ball from a still difficult angle. Eight minutes later, however, AZ had lost the lead again, when Martins Indi made an ugly mistake.
sport">The experienced defender was not prepared for the fact that Runar Espejord was in his back, and let a deep ball run. Espejord lifted it over goalkeeper Peter Vindahl Jensen, but Martins Indi then also failed to clean up. The left leg shot the ball against Beukema, after which Amahl Pellegrino gratefully took advantage of the chaos in the Alkmaar defense: 1-1.
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Dani de Wit (l.) and Jesper Karlsson hug Vangelis Pavlidis after his 2-1.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
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sport">Shortly after the equalizer, Pavlidis again gave AZ the lead for the second time, by tapping in a beautiful attack via Aslak Witry and Jesper Karlsson from close by. Pellegrino was then again close to 2-2, but the most danger in the second half came from AZ. Karlsson shot just wide once and shortly afterwards hit the intersection with a beautiful long shot.
Sledgehammer in extension
sport">In the necessary extra time, AZ was close to 3-1 on two occasions. One substitute, Zakaria Aboukhlal, served the other, Kamal Sowah, who just failed to score from close range. Aboukhlal broke through on the right side a minute later, but then ran into goalkeeper Khaikin. Those misses cost AZ dearly. On a pass from Hugo Vetlesen, Alfons Sampsted shot the ball past Vindahl in the far corner. Jansen’s team could no longer repair that damage.
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