AZ’s defeat at West Ham United is sour (2-1), but it does offer perspective for the home game. “I think we have the game under control until the sixtieth or seventieth minute. We then conceded the goals in the way we were warned about,” says Sven Mijnans.
Mijnans immediately put his finger on the sore spot afterwards. “We are just not deadly enough for the goal. That’s a shame, because I thought we were very good at the ball. You also get energy from the lead and you can’t reward that in the final phase.”
Mees de Wit saw – just like his teammate Mijnans – that AZ controlled the game. “We give away two moments and the ball is immediately in our possession twice. You know in advance that this is a difficult game and that is why we were calm on the ball.”
After Tijjani Reijnders’ opening goal, AZ remained the dominant team. “They come from a nasty penalty at 1-1. It started to storm here too and then they also come to 2-1.”
De Wit does not normally play in the base and was lucky that Milos Kerkez was suspended. “This is a childhood dream: to play in a semi-final of a European tournament. It was very nice and I also enjoyed the fans.”