Slender advantage for AZ in last 16 tie

Our Europa League round of 16 tie with AZ Alkmaar remains firmly in the balance after a 1-0 first leg defeat in the Netherlands on Thursday evening.

The Dutch side will come to north London for the return in a week’s time holding onto the slenderest of leads following an unfortunate first-half own goal from Lucas Bergvall and, while we turned in a below-par performance on the continent, we’ll be confident of turning things around next Thursday.

AZ – who finished 19th in the league phase before beating Galatasaray in the play-off round – will feel they should have won by a more convincing margin after creating some good chances after Bergvall put through his own net, not least from our former Academy graduate Troy Parrott who was denied by Guglielmo Vicario.

The game saw the return from injury to our matchday squad for Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke, with the latter coming off the bench in the second half although he did limp off late in the match.

AZ made a bright start and just two minutes in, Mayckel Lahdo delivered from the left and Parrott slid in but just diverted the ball wide before Ernest Poku’s dangerous cross fizzed across the face of our goal. The hosts then took the lead in unfortunate circumstances from our perspctive in the 18th minute as Parrott hooked a corner back into the middle, Bergvall swung his left foot at the ball only to see it slice off his shin, loop up and over Vicario and into the net.

We immediately went on the offensive and had a couple of promising attacks which lacked a decisive final pass while AZ went close again, Parrott seeing an effort blocked by Archie Gray before he was presented with a glorious chance to double his side’s lead, going clean through on goal from Denso Kasius’ pass but Vicario got enough of a touch to send Parrott’s shot just past the post.

Brennan Johnson hit a 20-yard shot over the bar as we looked for a way back into the contest although the home side almost scored again in a real goalmouth scramble with Vicario, Kevin Danso and Bergvall all making crucial interventions to keep them out and we trailed by just the one at the break.

We started the second half on the front foot, Bergvall looking to make amends for his earlier error by winning the ball in midfield and striding forwards before firing wide from the edge of the area. And Heung-Min Son did well when coming in off the left flank only to hit his shot high and wide but we were thankful to Vicario again just seconds later as he got low down to his right to keep out Poku’s effort.

A triple change with 18 minutes left saw Pape Matar Sarr, Pedro Porro and Solanke replace James Maddison, Destiny Udogie and Son – Solanke returning to action for the first time since mid-January – but we continued to struggle to create clear-cut chances in what became a bit of a scrappy affair. There were just two minutes of the game remaining when we forced AZ goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro into his first real save of the match as Wilson Odobert’s dipping fierce drive from the right needed parrying away.

After Solanke had limped off in stoppage time, we fashioned possibly our best chance of the game five minutes into the additional period when Pedro Porro sent over a cross from the right which found Odobert at the back post but he sent his header well over the top. It ended in defeat, but there’s all to play for still.

Match data

Goal: AZ – Bergvall (OG) 18.

Yellow cards: AZ – Koopmeiners, Poku, Van Duijn; Spurs – Bentancur.

Referee: Rade Obrenovič (Slovenia).

Venue: AZ Stadium, Alkmaar.

Weather: Clear sky, gentle breeze, four degrees.