AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands) (Away) 06.03.2025

There was some respite from the injury crisis with Romero, van de Ven and Solanke returning to the bench, but with a restricted squad to choose from to meet UEFA regulations and Kulusevski missing, with Porro rested from the starting eleven, it meant two changes to the side that lost to Manchester City.  Whenever we return to a stable starting eleven, we might see some of the form that we had last season.

Stuck behind a metal sheet separating the opposing fans, it was a less than ideal vantage point, not being able to see most of the goal in front of us.  As it turns out, from an attacking point of view, we didn’t miss too much.

While Spurs had the ball for most of the first two minutes, AZ had the first chance when a left wing cross came in low to the near post, but Parrott couldn’t get to it and the ball went off him for a goal-kick.  Lahdo toed the ball away from Bergvall who was already committed to a pass across field,  but caught the AZ man on the ankle, requiring a fair bit of attention.  He went down again with Spurs on the attack, with the ref stopping the match as a substitution had to be made with nine minutes gone.

With ten minutes gone Danso gave the ball away on the halfway line and AZ broke, switching play to Poku on the left, who took on Archie Gray and put a low ball across the face of goal that went off for a throw on the far side.  It was a slow start by both sides, but the home team had created the better openings in the first fifteen minutes.

Tottenham’s first shot came after a quick interchange of passes on the right and then it came to Son, who tried a shot from 25 yards that hit the back of a defender and looped into the hands of the keeper.  From that AZ worked the ball forward and won a corner on their left wing.  It was played deep and the volley came in from Parrott, which Bergvall tried to clear and awkwardly sliced it into the air over Spence’s head at the far post to give AZ the lead.  It was an unfortunate goal, but the freedom Parrott had at the far post should not have been allowed by the Tottenham defence, with the goal perhaps avoided if there was a marker on the former Spurs striker.

It wasn’t possible for Tottenham to hold onto the ball after the goal, causing a breakdown in any moves they tried to put together.  Lacking conviction, our passing caused the play to be hurried and when Danso broke through to make a run up the left, his ball into the box failed to find a white shirt, but it was played out to the right where Johnson’s ball outside the defender for Spence to move onto didn’t give him a lot of options to do anything with as it was slightly over-hit.

A run out from an AZ goal-kick through the middle of the pitch went unchallenged and Kasius slid Parrot through to move in on goal, but his low effort caught Vicario’s heel and thankfully went out for a corner.  

James Maddison won a free-kick just outside the AZ box with a run from halfway that Koopmeiners tried three times to foul him before succeeding with a trip on the Spurs midfielder.  An overcomplicated short free-kick routine wasted the opportunity to put the home goal under threat with half an hour gone, but we had to wait another seven minutes before Brennan Johnson hit a left footed shot over the bar from 20 yards.

Three minutes before the break a corner for the home team was played across the box and then chipped back to the far post where Parrott took the ball down and started a massive scramble a yard out from the post with three or four shots blocked before it was cleared.  Too often the ball was just played forward by Spurs without aiming the ball at any of our players simply gifting the ball to Alkmaar.

One minute into added time, Maddison made a run into the box that won a corner and it came to nothing as the ref gave a free-kick when a red shirt hit the ground at the far post.  So a disappointing half came to an end, with Spurs struggling to find any fluency and AZ having control of the game.

The second half started with Wilson Odobert replacing Mathys Tel, as both teams won throw-ins along the side-line before Bergvall won the ball in the centre-circle and strode forward to let go a shot from 18 yards that went a yard wide.  When an AZ move was broken down on our right, Son and Odobert ran the ball forward, with the skipper taking the ball across the edge of the box to shoot wide from just inside the D.  Vicario had to be on his toes again when the ball was played across the box to the left for Poku to shoot low first time, but Vic got down to it well to push it away with his right hand.

When Johnson played a careless infield pass fifteen yards outside the AZ box, it led to the Dutch team moving forward and swinging balls into the box, which thankfully were a bit too strong to find anyone in the area.  Loose passes when looking to play out caused turnovers in possession and put Tottenham under more pressure, when a good pass would break the press.

Bentancur got a yellow card for a foul on Parrot that puts him out of the second leg of this round and was in the referee’s ear until Maddison pushed him away to prevent any further disciplinary action being taken.  Spurs were unable to break out from the back and were on the end of a lot of decisions from the referee that brought more frustration.  Koopmeiners got a booking after only two goes at fouling Spence on this occasion.  Poku then brought down Spence as he cut in from the right and got a yellow card as they started to fly out of the ref’s pocket.  The free-kick failed to find a Spurs head as another free-kick went begging.

Porro, Sarr and Solanke were given twenty minutes as Udogie, Son and Maddison left the action.  Usually so reliable in his passing, Rodrigo was prone to giving the ball away and when he moved the ball to Bergvall, the Swede made a good forward run until Clasie bundled him over (as he did throughout the match) and left him winded, although after a moment to catch his breath he played on.

In the 88th minute, Spurs broke away from an AZ corner and Odobert fired in a shot from the right that the goalkeeper could only beat out unconvincingly.  He was better when Bentancur lifted a ball into the middle of the box and he took out Solanke with a knee into the Spurs striker’s back that took him off looking in a great deal of pain and Dane Scarlett on.

Van Duijn saw yellow for crashing into Spence with no intention of going for the ball and a late Porro cross saw Odobert come flying in to head it at goal, but he got under it and that was the last act of a disappointing night for Tottenham, even though they return to the THS for the second leg only one goal behind, so there is still some hope of going through, but it will need a far superior performance to this one and heaven knows how many players we will lose through injury against Bournemouth on Sunday, while AZ have a weekend off.

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