AZ struggles but gets a valuable draw

AZ must have repeatedly begged opponent Zenit to stop and give them a break… The ambitious Van Gaal team had to play almost a half game with ten men and had to defend, pray, hope, tremble, stumble and struggle but did come away with one point.

With this point, the whole of Dutch football is helped. Points are important for future positions of Dutch teams in the several competitions and after the ousting of Ajax, Groningen, Heerenveen and Twente, every point counts.

If AZ does well against the remaining matches against Nurnberg, Larissa and Everton, no one will remember this match, where only one team deserved to win. AZ was outclassed on all fronts and it thanked their point to relentless defending and great goalkeeping. And luck.

AZ did everything wrong in the beginning. The nervous players couldn’t keep possession and the only thing you can blame Zenit is that they didn’t profit from AZ’s weak start.

AZ gambled on the counterattack and got lucky. Cziommer passed to striker Ari who hit the ball in the far corner of the goal, 0-1.
The same Ari got AZ in trouble 4 minutes later. Without the ball, he had a rumble with a defender, giving him a “knee”: red card. Not long after that
it was Ryan Donk who fouled a Zenit attacker: penalty 1-1.

Zenit attacked furiously in the second half but miraculously AZ survived the onslaught.

It seems AZ lost a true leader with the sale of Arveladze, Koevermans and De Cler. For now, there is no personality in the team that can lead the way out of trouble.

Van Gaal: ” I want to compliment my team. It was great that we were able to draw against this strong Zenit, in particular with ten players.”