Ajax, AZ and FC Twente won on Thursday in Europa League matches. Ajax has won the first match of the evening against Union Sint-Gillis (0-2). The team of trainer Francesco Farioli fought on a difficult to playable field in the King Baudouin Stadium from Brussels to a good starting position for a place in the eighth finals of the Europa League. The return will be in the Johan Cruijff Arena next week.
Farioli did not opt for his strongest basic formation, with a view to the battle for the upper places in the Eredivisie and the bad field in Brussels. Brian Brobbey, Josip Sutalo, Kenneth Taylor, Anton Gaaei and Bertrand Traoré did not appear at the kick -off.
Profit for AZ against Galatasaray
AZ overwhelmed on Thursday evening with a large victory (4-1) the Turkish leader Galatasaray. With that, the Alkmaar club has a place at the last sixteen clubs in the Europa League for grabbing. Galatasaray is still unbeaten in the competition in its own country.
Due to the win, AZ will defend in a week in Istanbul on a large lead. AZ and Galatasaray were already opposite each other in Alkmaar at the end of November in the main tournament of the Europa League. Then it became 1-1.
Voltage FC Twente in the last minutes
In the nick of time, FC Twente won the first game with FK Bodø/Glimt in the interim of the Europa League. It became 2-1 in the Grolsch Veste of Enschede. The team took the lead for a long time due to a goal in the fifth minute. In the 85th minute the equalizer came for the Norwegians. Ricky van Wolfswinkel eventually won the victory by using a penalty kick in injury time.
The team of coach Joseph Oosting has to go to Norway in a week for the return. The winner of the diptych qualifies for the eighth finals of the second European club tournament.
(ANP)