Tijjani Reijnders gave AZ a late victory tonight. The substitute scored the important 2-1 on a pass from Sam Beukema, which turned out to be sufficient for AZ’s victory against sc Heerenveen.
The first dangerous moment of the Frisians was immediately hit. After a deep pass from Tibor Halilović, Amin Sarr shot the ball hard behind Peter Vindahl: 0-1. That was after seven minutes, so AZ had to chase. Dani de Wit had the opportunity to score twice from close range, goalkeeper Erwin Mulder was a spoilsport.
Only a free kick by Sydney van Hooijdonk caused Frisian danger. The chances were mainly for the Alkmaarders. A pass from Owen Wijndal just passed De Wit, Vangelis Pavlidis nodded the ball too softly towards Mulder and the latter saved on a good free kick by Jesper Karlsson. On the stroke of half-time, the Swede was still able to cheer on a pass from Fredrik Midtsjø: 1-1.
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Reijnders goldcrest
The first shot after the break was scored by Zakaria Aboukhlal, who was allowed to start in the starting line again. The attacker found Mulder in his way. AZ then kept the initiative and created chances via Yukinari Sugawara (shot just wide) and Karlsson (free kick on goal). It then took a while before the audience could bounce back, but that happened after a hard shot by substitute Tijjani Reijnders.
Sam Beukema headed wide in the final phase and Anthony Musaba shot over in the counterpunch. That miss cost him dearly, because less than a minute later, Reijnders made it 2-1. That was the death blow for Heerenveen. In stoppage time, Arjen van der Heide had another shooting opportunity, his effort ended on the post.
With the win, AZ is three points behind number four FC Twente.
AZ setup: Vindahl; Sugawara, Beukema, Martins Indi, Wijndal (Witry/88); Midtsjø, De Wit (Reijnders/46), Clasie; Aboukhlal (Evjen/73), Pavlidis (Sowah/88), Karlsson