AZ builds confidence for European job with easy away win over Fortuna
NOS Football–
Watch the summary of Fortuna Sittard – AZ
AZ recovered somewhat from their midweek defeat against Anderlecht in the Conference League. The Alkmaarders recorded a deserved victory in the premier league at Fortuna Sittard thanks to goals by Jens Odgaard, Milos Kerkez and Vangelis Pavlidis: 0-3.
Coach Pascal Jansen’s team is not currently overflowing with self-confidence, but victory in Sittard will give AZ a pleasant feeling ahead of the return game against Anderlecht. AZ must overcome a 2-0 loss at home on Thursday.
Without playing eye-catching, AZ had the match under control. Striker Myron van Brederode, who as against Anderlecht replaced the unfit Jesper Karlsson in the starting line-up, saw a shot blocked and Odgaard also smelled the opening goal with a missed shot from close range.
AZ runs out of steam
Odgaard did score in the 24th minute. The Dane correctly assessed a pass through the middle from Tijjani Reijnders and then slid the ball diagonally past Fortuna goalkeeper Ivor Pandur into the far corner.
AZ kept the upper hand and got to 0-2 just before halftime thanks to Kerkez. The Hungarian dribbled towards the Fortuna goal from his own half and, to the dismay of trainer Julio Velázquez, was barely hindered by a Fortuna player.
Kerkez, meanwhile, saw his chance and rounded off his fine rush with a placed shot into the corner.
‘If you can score four goals against Lazio, you can also score two against Anderlecht’
In the second half, AZ quietly continued looking for goals and Fortuna played little. Pavlidis missed eye-to-eye with goalkeeper Pandur, but was able to describe his twelfth Eredivisie goal just before time, after the currently somewhat difficult scoring Greek had been the terminus of a flowing AZ attack.
With that, AZ played off the chagrin of the past period (four duels without a win) and looks set for a European comeback on Thursday.
