AZ Alkmaar (Nederlands) (Home) 13.03.2025

For the first time in many matches Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven both started and with Rodrigo Bentancur picking up a booking in the first leg getting him a suspension, Lucas Bergvall started in midfield alongside James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr, while Wilson Odobert came into the team in place of Brennan Johnson.

Spurs were at it from the start in stark contrast to the first leg, when a lacklustre performance allowed them to escape with only a one goal deficit.  It looked as thought he bulk of the Tottenham attacks were aimed down our left wing, with AZ looking to hit their pacy wingers early when they were in possession.  Sharp two-touch play was allowing Spurs to play little triangles around the red shirts of AZ and while the visitors were getting a lot of men back behind the ball, their out ball was normally picked off quite easily by van de Ven and Romero.

While the ball was rarely in the Tottenham half for the first ten minutes, it was only then that Spurs threatened, with Maddison’s ball curled into the goalmouth from the left cleared without a Spurs player making the move to it.  Pedro Porro then had to be strong to dispossess Troy Parrott on the edge of the Tottenham box.  Wilson Odobert showed quick feet to make a run from right to left, but despite linking with Son.  Spurs looked more confident and at ease on the ball, but the massed ranks of AZ players were getting tackles in when Spurs got to their defensive third.

Th Dutch tactics seemed to be to boot the ball forward and hope one of their players could chase it down and when they played a decent ball out to Moller Wolffe, Romero made ground wide to the right to slide tackle him and win the ball.  Tottenham’s pressing was impressive and when Djed Spence nicked the ball away from Parrott and the Irishman went down holding his ankle, Cristian Romero had little sympathy for him, giving him a volley of abuse while the former Spurs striker was rolling around on the floor.  Meanwhile, Son had won a corner on the left and while waiting to take it, the usual shoving and pulling was going on, with Micky depositing Maikuma in the back of the net with a push.

With AZ getting nine or ten men back within a five yard gap around the 18 yard line, the opportunity to shoot was not an option despite the crowd’s shouts to encourage an effort on goal.  On 22 minutes, Son bent a ball into the goalmouth, with Owusu-Odoro coming to punch out with Dom going in for the ball and when Alkmaar got into our half, Micky tackled Parrott, won the ball off Moller Wolffe while on the floor and when it popped up, he headed it to Porro while still on the floor.  Three minutes later, Son closed down Goes and blocked his clearance, with the ball going square to Solanke, just inside the left corner of the box.  He spotted Odobert to his right and laid a left foot pass into the winger and from a position around the penalty spot drove it with his left foot into the keeper’s top left corner to score his first Tottenham goal.  The high press paid off, with a bit of luck taking the ball to Dom, but there was the presence of mind from the centre-forward to know Wilson was in space.

The ball was being moved much quicker today and when Micky came out with the ball, he fed Son down the left and he cut inside to hit a low shoot, but with not sufficient power to trouble the keeper, who dived to his left to get behind the ball just after the half hour.  A free kick on the right was played into the Spurs box and as Parrot went to flick it on with a high foot, he caught Solanke in the throat.  It must have been very painful, but after a moment to recover he was OK to carry on.  Lucas cut out a Parrott pass just outside the box in their next attack, sending Son away, who was tackle din the box, but recovered the ball to pass to Bergvall on the left corner of the area and the Swede curled a shot over the bar.  It was more like the sonny we know, who broke with pace to take on Maikuma.  

Guglielmo Vicario was quick off his line when a cross flicked off Sarr’s head to the far post to Ibrahim, who knocked it forward only for the keeper to claim it on the floor.  Vic was diving across his goal to the right after Romero put a pass out straight at Parrott’s head and the ball fell for Buurmeester, who failed to live up to his first name of Zico by dragging the ball wide from 20 yards out.  In fact, his primary function in the team appeared to be to pull people down from behind when they got past him.  

The half-time interviewees were Sandro and Ossie Ardiles and the second half started with Romero knocking the ball back to Vicario, who tried a Cruyff turn with Koopmeiners shutting him down and taking it towards his own goal, the keeper got the ball away a yard sooner than he did on Sunday against Bournemouth.  Two minutes into the half, Porro nicked the ball away from substitute de Wit, with it running on to Odobert, while de Wit pulled down Pedro off the ball.  Moving the ball inside to James Maddison, it was then slid left to Son just inside the corner of the box and his little return pass square, after two defenders had tried to cut off any run outside, allowed James to take a touch and pick out a low shot into bottom left side of the keeper’s goal to make it 2-0.  Not only was it another goal resulting from the press (on the halfway lien this time), but also one that punished AZ for a cynical foul further back in the play.  Madders sued the defender in front of him, Penetra, as a shield so the keeper was unsighted when he placed his shot out of his reach.

There was a response, with Parrott receiving the ball 12 yards out from a ball in from the right, but he got it stuck under his feet, so Romero was able to come to get something on the resulting shot with the ball spinning gently to Vicario.  The linesman flagged for offside, but with Spurs having possession, the ref played on.  When Clasie tried to play the ball forward, Bergvall easily intercepted and broke past him with the AZ captain not living up to his name, by unsuccessfully trying to cynically trip Lucas, who then drifted past de Wit.  His powerful running is becoming a feature of his play that has matured with every match.  When Romero played a pass to Sarr inside the centre circle, he spread it wide to Son, who ran at Maikuma before playing it back to Pape who had run into the box and he returned it once more, with Sonny past the last defender coming into the six yard box from the left.  With Odobert in the middle of the goal and Solanke hanging back, there were two options on, but the ball just ran away from our captain for a goal-kick.  It was a great chance to make it 3-0.

It helped us that AZ couldn’t hold onto the ball for long, so we didn’t always have to win the ball back.  Having said that a wasteful free-kick taken by Romero went straight to a red shirt and they looked to set Poku free through the right hand channel, but Micky van de Ven got back and went shoulder-to-shoulder with him in the box, winning the ball without giving away a penalty.  From that Alkmaar got he ball back and won a corner that was taken short and played back to Clasie inside the d.  He kept his shot low, but dragged it wide of Vicario’s right hand post by a couple of feet.  The referee seemed determined not to book anyone, with Maikuma going through the back of Son leaving both players down, but it was van de Ven who was substituted having had 61 minutes on the grass and Archie Gray replaced him.   

Porro had the chance to shoot on the volley when a Son cross was headed out, but he got it all wrong, firing well wide and also looking like he was suffering as it caught the ball wrong when making connection with the ball.  As AZ attacked Wilson chased back to win the ball and left it for Bergvall, who looked to play it back to Romero, but it hit Odobert and fell into the run of Koopmeiners who thundered the ball past Vicario’s right hand from ten yards out.  It was a shock as the Dutch side had not looked like scoring until then and it silenced the crowd, with the aggregate score now 2-2.

Looking to hit back, Spurs were still working the left wing and Spence’s pull back to Maddison produced a shot aimed at the far top corner, but it was a couple of feet too high.  Taking a goal-kick, Archie Gray played the ball to Romero, who’s pass to Odobert was short but the winger won it back off de Wit.  Porro took over, played it back to Romero, then it went through Vicario, Gray and Spence before a pass to Maddison saw him drop a shoulder to take him away from Goes and Koopmeiners.  Moving over halfway, James played it left to Djed and he moved the ball to Sonny.  Returning the ball to the over-lapping Spence, the ball was played square just outside the six yard box for Dom to touch it on at the near post dragging the ball forward with Odobert coming in at the far post to simply side foot with his right foot into an empty net.  The players celebrated with Wilson, although Pape looked like he was using the scorer as a punchbag. as Spurs regained the aggregate lead.  It was a smart back heel by Solanke to find Wilson and although he had to stretch slightly to reach it, he was well balanced to ensure he got a good contact.

The move was almost replicated a couple of minutes later, but a defender got a foot to the ball just before Djed’s low ball reached Dom.  With just under 15 minutes left, Ange made a couple of subs with Maddison and Odobert being replaced by Bissouma and Johnson.  Five minutes later AZ out together their best move of the match, when Koopmeiners was released into space on the right wing and his pass inside picked out Parrott in space in the box.  His shot to Vicario’s right was a good height for the keeper to reach across and push it wide, but only to de Wit, whose goal-bound shot was blocked by a sliding Bissouma that took the ball over the bar for a corner.  It was a magnificent piece of covering that saved Tottenham from conceding the goal that would have levelled the overall score again.  When the corner came in, Vic grabbed it high over the heads of those in front of him to avert any danger.

As the visitors looked for another goal, a right wing cross came in and Porro had two players jumping with him, as Mexx Meerdink got to it first but got under the ball, putting it high over the top, although Parrott might have been better placed behind him.  It was a good chance that went begging.  Bergvall went down with cramp and it was so bad he had to be replaced by Ben Davies.  Pushing onto the Spurs penalty area, AZ were showing more ambition that any time in the match, but a high ball into the penalty area was claimed in the air by Vicario on the edge of the box.  

In the last fifteen seconds of the 90, a long cross from the right wing found Smit at the far post, where he time and space but put his volley into the side-netting.  Maarten Martens (so good they named him twice)was getting out of his box, so had to be spoken to by the fourth official.  de Wit tried to break past Djed in the area, but Pape Matar Sarr was covering and won a goal-kick off the Alkmaar man.  Archie was lucky to avoid a booking, but then everyone else had, when he fouled Meerdink.  It was taken and cleared and as AZ started to build again, the final whistle went while they we on the attack and Clasie got the booking he deserved for other offences when he abused the referee. 

This was a much improved performance by Spurs that proved enough to get through to a quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, which won’t be easy as they look an impressive side.  While good enough to see off AZ, there were still aspects that need to be better, with Romero having just returned to the team, we got away with some of his misplaced passes not being made to hurt our defence and the control of the game went a bit askew when AZ pressed towards the end.  It was pleasing in that it is getting back to the performances of earlier in the season and thanks to Vicario and Bissouma, they kept out what might have been an aggregate equalising goal. 

It was another case of the only opportunities the opposition had were ones gifted to them by Spurs.  Cutting out the sloppiness when passing will make games a little more straightforward.  In the end it was AZ’s lack of ambition that cost them the tie.  Not finishing off Spurs in the first leg and setting up in a solid, but with little intent to go for goals.

It was fascinating to see how Troy Parrott fared with all the hype being around him in the build-up to these two matches.  Scoring goals in Holland is not the great addition to the CV as it might seem, as we found out with Vincent Janssen.  Looking leaner than in his time at Spurs, he was eased off the ball most of the time, with the Republic of Ireland international spending a lot of time on the floor asking for a free-kick but not getting one from the ref.  Van de Ven and Romero were far too experienced to be beaten by him and while Troy is obviously sure of his own ability, trying to mix it with Cristian was a mistake, as our defender had the advantage every time – apart from one – and he couldn’t beat Vicario with that.  Perhaps Spurs made the right decision not to retain him and make a profit, but he looks to have made himself a nice niche in Holland.

So, a month’s wait until we meet Frankfurt at home in the first leg, with the international break and a lack of games before the Europa League re-starts.  Let’s see which Tottenham turn up then.

• Wilson Odobert scored his first goals for Spurs.
• Wilson Odobert (20) scored two goals and added to those scored by Damola Ajayi (19), Will Lankshear (19), Dane Scarlett (20) and Mikey Moore (17) create a new record for the number of players under 21 (five) to score in a single season in a European competition.