AZ youth team overpowers Barcelona in Youth League; world goal from center circle
NOS Soccer–
AZ talent Smit scores from the center line against Barcelona in Youth League
AZ’s under 19 team caused a resounding surprise by winning 3-0 against their Barcelona peers, in the eighth finals of the UEFA Youth League. That is the youth equivalent of the Champions League.
Highlight of the afternoon was Kees Smit’s opening goal, from the center circle.
Estadi Johan Cruyff
AZ featured two players on the field of the Estadi Johan Cruyff, normally the stadium of Barcelona’s second team, who have already made their debuts in the first team: Fedde de Jong and Ernest Poku.
About ten minutes after halftime, thanks to Smit, the spell was broken. The midfielder got the ball to his feet just over the center line and outsmarted goalkeeper Ander Astralaga with a blistering shot from still inside the center circle.
Soon after, Mexx Meerdink, whose father Martijn played one international for the Dutch national team in 2006, credited a simple nick.
Fifteen minutes before time, Barcelona’s Lucas Roman received his second yellow card for a schwalbe. With a man less, the Catalans went in search of the tying goal, but in injury time Meerdink put the game away with his second goal: 0-3.
In the quarter-finals, another magnificent affair awaits AZ, when they will play Barcelona’s arch-rival, Real Madrid. Ajax lost 5-1 to Sporting Lisbon in the eighth finals.
