Jesper Karlsson once again proved his worth for AZ today. The Swedish attacker scored two goals and thus had an important share in the profit of the Alkmaarders. Hakon Evjen completed the party by also scoring: 1-3.
Compared to the cup match against Ajax on Thursday, there were two changes at AZ. Owen Wijndal was suspended for too many yellow cards. He was replaced by Aslak Fonn Witry. Zakaria Aboukhlal took place again on the bench, his place was taken by Hakon Evjen. NEC started the game brighter than AZ, but the Alkmaarders took the lead anyway.
Jesper Karlsson hit the ball hard behind Mattijs Branderhorst: 0-1. The attacker appeared to take the ball with his hand, but VAR decided to approve the goal. After half an hour Evjen got a shot chance. The Norwegian shot the ball over the goal from the edge of sixteen. The home team then insisted and shot just wide through Bart van Rooij. Just before half time, Rodrigo Guth headed in the equalizer from a corner: 1-1.
Watch Karlsson’s controversial goal below:
After the break, NEC had a chance via Souffian El Karouani, who got the ball at the far post. He tapped the ball wide. Karlsson went looking for his second goal, but his long shot ended on Branderhorst’s fists. In the end Karlsson made it 2-1 with a shot from distance that the NEC goalkeeper couldn’t stop. Hakon Evjen scored 3-1 a few minutes later and seemed to decide the game.
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Pascal Jansen analyzes the profit on NEC – NH Nieuws
NEC became dangerous in the final phase. Bruno Martins Indi had to get a ball off the line after a mistake by Yukinari Sugawara. Less than a minute later, Karlsson also took a ball off the line. After this, the Nijmegen team no longer became dangerous and AZ went back to Alkmaar with three points.
With the win, Pascal Jansen’s team approaches Feyenoord to one point. The Rotterdam team played 1-1 against FC Groningen yesterday.
AZ setup: Vindahl; Sugawara, Hatzidiakos, Martins Indi, Witry; Clasie, De Wit (Sowah/64), Reijnders; Evjen, Pavlidis (Aboukhlal/64), Karlsson (Beukema/87)
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