By Ian King
For the reason that first leg
A mis-hit cross and a penalty brought on by a rush of blood to the pinnacle of an opposing goalkeeper was sufficient to salvage a degree for Spurs towards Bournemouth on Sunday, however there was little else optimistic to take from the match past having someway scrambled from 2-0 all the way down to get a draw.
AZ haven’t performed for the reason that first leg of this fixture, however they have already got a greater likelihood of choosing up some silverware and qualifying for Europe than Spurs this season having booked their place within the KNVB Cup closing towards Go Forward Eagles. They’re the bookmakers favourites to win that Cup closing, which is about to be performed in Rotterdam in April.
A 3rd assembly of the season
These two hadn’t met previous to this season’s Europa League, with Spurs beating AZ again within the league part, however then dropping that first leg within the Netherlands, with each video games ending 1-0.
Usually, Spurs truthful effectively towards Dutch opposition and have solely misplaced 5 of 23 earlier conferences. Arguably the best latest night time of their historical past got here in Amsterdam in 2019, when Lucas Moura was the unlikely hero of an unimaginable Champions League semi-final second leg which they gained 3-2 to sneak via on objective distinction. AZ’s solely earlier look in a European closing was towards English opposition; Ipswich City in 1981. They misplaced a two-legged closing 5-4 on mixture. They’ve misplaced all 9 of their earlier journeys to England.
Key gamers
One small shiny spot from the Bournemouth match for Spurs was the return of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero following prolonged accidents. The Spurs defence has missed van de Ven’s tempo and Romero’s chunk very a lot certainly, these previous couple of weeks. For AZ, there’s that one connection to Spurs. Troy Parrott got here via the youth system at Spurs however solely made two appearances from them earlier than ultimately being offered to AZ final summer season. He’s scored 17 objectives in all competitions for them this season, greater than anybody has managed for Spurs.
Workforce Information
Rodrigo Bentancur is suspended for Spurs following a yellow card within the first leg. Archie Grey or Lucas Bergvall ought to deputise. Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison are additionally injured. For AZ, Mayckel Lahdo and Denso Kasius each needed to be withdrawn from the primary leg and might be lacking this time round, whereas Sven Mijnan, Ruben van Bommel, Jayden Addai and Mexx Meerdink are additionally injured.
Prediction
There’s something deliciously Spurs-esque about dedicating your season to the cups after which getting knocked out of each home ones within the house of 4 days, and the upshot of that is that this match has taken on a distended significance to their season. Getting previous Spurs can be a serious scalp for AZ they usually’ve already demonstrated themselves as an honest cup staff this season. Spurs going 1-0 up, chasing a second objective, and getting caught on the hop by an equaliser and eradicated by a 1-1 draw.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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