AZ won the practice match against Valencia at the training camp in Spain. The Alkmaarders won 3-1 against the Spaniards. Acquisition Djordje Mihailovic made his first minutes.
AZ started in the strongest line-up. There was room for the first time for Djordje Mihailovic. The American made the switch to AZ this winter. The team of trainer Pascal Jansen started in a sun-drenched Valencia. Although Sam Beukema took a bet from the goal line, it was AZ after twelve minutes that took the lead through Jesper Karlsson. Opportunities piled up towards half-time via Jens Odgaard and Vangelis Pavlidis, but the margin remained limited.
Two minutes before the break, a stronger AZ had to collect the equalizer. Goalkeeper Hobie Verhulst seemed to get the ball out of the goal beautifully, but the referee decided that the ball had crossed the line: 1-1. With Milos Kerkez, Dani de Wit and Riechedly Bazoer within the lines, it was already a hit within a minute in the second half. Odgaard finished after a nice long ball from Tijjani Reijnders. Halfway through the second half, Karlsson put 3-1 for AZ on the scoreboard with his second of the afternoon. What followed was a cartload of switches at the Alkmaarders
penalty killer
It was striking that goalkeeper Rome Owusu-Oduro made his first minutes in AZ’s first and that Hakon Evjen made minutes again. The winger did that before at Young AZ. Owusu-Oduro immediately distinguished himself with a great save and even managed to save a penalty kick in injury time. As a result, AZ won 3-1 against Valencia at the training camp in Spain.
Before the resumption of the Eredivisie, AZ will play one more exhibition game. Next week, the Alkmaarders will travel to Italy for a match against Teun Koopmeiners’ Atalanta Bergamo.
Setup AZ: Verhulst (Owusu-Oduro/65), Sugawara (F. De Jong/65), Hatzidiakos (Koopmeiners/65), Beukema (Dekker/65), M. De Wit (Kerkez/46); Clasie (Bazoer/46), Reijnders (Evjen/65), Mihailovic (D. De Wit/65); Odgaard (Lahdo/65), Pavlidis (Barasi/65), Karlsson (Van Brederode/65)