AZ midfielder Sven Mijnans made playing minutes for the first time in weeks. Mijnans played the entire second half of a visit to Heracles, but could not prevent the Alkmaarders from lost 1-0 to the team from Almelo. “The duel power and the real pit were missing”, was the clear comments of Mijnans after the defeat.
“If you are in a lesser phase, you have to go to full. But it was again not good enough today. Hopefully this defeat will put us on to the cup final, because we need that sharpness,” said Mijnans.
AZ is in a bad phase. The last time the team of Maartens Martens won in the competition was on February 23. Then Fortuna Sittard was won 1-0.
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AZ coach Maarten Martens was also disappointed afterwards as a plug. “It is not good enough. This is not the level that we can expect from each other. In the first half you do it reasonably well. We do not play big, but we are close to goals. In the second half you have to do a little extra. We have done that,” said Martens.