Goals from Maarten Martens and Erik Falkenburg secured a comfortable win for Gertjan Verbeek’s men and enhanced their chances of making progression to the quarter-final.
On Thursday, March 8, AZ Alkmaar cruised to a comfortable 2-0 victory over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Udinese-Calcio-c40789 in the first-leg of UEFA Europa League round-of-16 at AFAS Stadion.
The home side dominated proceedings in the opening half despite http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Samir-Handanovic-c32356.
The shot-stopper was once again in action when he denied http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Brett-Holman-c8047 from hitting the back of the net in the 19th minute.
Although the outfit from Alkmaar pegged the Bianconeri inside their own half, they failed to pose a real threat to Udinese's defensive line.
After the half-time break, the visiting side resumed better than the two sides. However, AZ broke the deadlock through http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Giovanni-Pasquale-c14997 and went straight up for Martens,
who made no mistake in heading the ball into the back of the net.
After conceding an unfortunate goal, the Serie A side tried to assert their authority and looked to score the equaliser. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Damiano-Ferronetti-c9799 could have levelled the score-line four minutes later, but he fired his effort wide of the target, much to the relief
of AZ head coach, Gertjan Verbeek.
The visitors continued to move forward in numbers and AZ took advantage on the counter-attack by scoring their second of the evening in the 84th minute. Altidore’s pass from the right found http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Erik-Falkenburg-c12753 inside the box, and the 23-year-old midfielder
made no mistake in sliding the ball past Handanovic.
To his credit, though, Handanovic kept the score line respectable with two impressive saves in injury time. He first tipped Falkenburg’s effort over the crossbar moments before denying Altidore’s header from going into the back of the net.
When the referee blew the final whistle to end proceedings at AFAS Stadion, the score-line read 2-0 in favour of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AZ-c38571.
Although Udinese would be disappointed with the loss, they still have a good chance of progressing through to the quarter-final of the Europe’s second tier competition should they manage to impress in the return leg at home.
The Bianconeri will lock horns against AZ in the return leg at Stadio Friuli on Thursday, March 15.
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