AZ lost a visit to FC Twente. The Alkmaarders were 2-0 behind within fifteen minutes by two early goals from Manfred Ugalde. Jesper Karlsson made it 2-1, but AZ did not get any further. As a result, Pascal Jansen’s team drops to fourth place.
The beginning of AZ can rightly be described as dramatic. After eight minutes, Twente was already 1-0. Joshua Brenet passed Manfred Ugalde and he headed in. It went from bad to worse for AZ after Ugalde made his second.
The Costa Rican headed in from a spinning cross from Vaclav Cerny: 2-0. The Alkmaarders could only counter this with a dangerous long shot from Tijjani Reijnders. Ugalde still had a great chance to score the 3-0, but it was not for him.
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In the second half, FC Twente remained the most dangerous team. It was mainly thanks to goalkeeper Mathew Ryan that AZ stayed on its feet. He made two good saves on shots from Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Michel Vlap. Those rescues eventually paid off. Jordy Clasie, who has not been called up for the Orange, passed the ball to Jesper Karlsson. The Swede steamed towards the goal and remained cool: 2-1.
Just before that, Mexx Meerdink had made his league debut for AZ. The striker had an imposed chance at the equalizer, but he shot full against Julio Pleguezuelo. The Alkmaarders did not create further than that possibility. As a result, it ended in 2-1.
Due to the defeat, AZ does not benefit from Ajax’s loss against Feyenoord. PSV played a draw against Vitesse (1-1), as a result of which the Alkmaarders dropped to fourth place. After the international period, sc Heerenveen in Alkmaar is the next opponent.
Setup AZ: Ryan; Sugawara, Hatzidiakos, Goes (Beukema/46), Kerkez (M. De Wit/60); Reijnders, Clasie, Mijnans; Odgaard (Lahdo/60), Pavlidis (Meerdink/60), Karlsson