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sport">Jansen sent the same players into the meadow of the typical Eastern block stadium with which AZ had defeated Jablonec, SC Cambuur and FC Utrecht in the past three matches. A team that has become increasingly attuned to each other after the departure of the strongholds Stengs, Boadu and Koopmeiners, as witnessed last Sunday’s gala performance against FC Utrecht (5-1).
sport">AZ, which was still supported by 180 faithful in the distant hinterland of the aristocratic vampire Dracula, had therefore traveled to Romania with confidence. And the team radiated that confidence in the first half. AZ played head-to-head, was technically and tactically lord and master and created a handful of great opportunities before half-time.
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Pantelis Hatzidiakos celebrates the victory.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
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sport">For a while it seemed that Jansen’s team forgot to reward itself, as it often does in European duels this season. Jordy Clasie hit the post after fifteen minutes with a volley from twenty meters and saw Vangelis Pavlidis kill his first chance two minutes later. After Cluj striker Gabriel Debeljuh briefly frightened the guests with an offside goal, it was Jesper Karlsson who nodded in a wonderful pass from Yukinari Sugawara: 0-1.
Back to touch
sport">The young Swede is back to his old self after he got a little bit in the summer after he lost weight for the European Championship. In the first few games he argued more with himself and the ball than with the opponent, but now his statistics don’t lie. In the past six games, the left striker with the devastating right leg has been good for five goals and three assists. The Swedish national coach Janne Andersson will undoubtedly have him in the snot again.
sport">In the second half, the better chances were for the home team, which was lucky that after dirty tackles by Burca and Culio on Pavlidis and Owen Wijndal respectively, it was still with eleven men in the field. Dani de Wit was also skilfully knocked out of the game with an elbow punch to his nose.
‘Not played well, but 3 points’
sport">Wijndal was happy with the positive result in Romania, but dissatisfied with his team’s game against national champion CFR Cluj. “No, we didn’t play well, but we do have 3 points. That’s the most important thing,” the defender said ESPN.
sport">Wijndal was still satisfied with the initial phase of AZ. “We also scored a good goal. But then it subsided. In my opinion we were the better team, but we were also too sloppy and therefore created too few chances and perhaps also gave away a little too much. The final pass was often not completely clean, it was just too hard, or just too soft.”
sport">The next match in the Conference League will be played at home against CFR Cluj on 4 November.
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