AZ and Anderlecht qualified for the quarterfinals of the Conference League. For the Dutch team it was at the expense of Lazio on Thursday evening. After the victory in Rome, the Italians were also defeated in the AFAS Stadium.
AZ 2-1 Lazio
Lazio had something to make up for after the 1-2 home defeat a week ago, but coach Maurizio Sarri still decided to give strong players such as Pedro and Luis Alberto a rest in Alkmaar. Even without that duo, Lazio managed to clear that deficit after twenty minutes. Felipe Anderson pushed the ball past goalkeeper Mathew Ryan into the left corner, leveling both teams.
That didn’t take long: seven minutes after Lazio’s goal, Karlsson had already struck. He got the ball on the left and came in. He hit with the right from about twenty meters: Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel then had no answer to the Swede’s beautiful mop shot, which ended up in the far top corner: 1-1.
AZ had its affairs in order again and was even close to a second goal at the end of the first half. This time Provedel did have an answer to Karlsson’s attempt in the short corner. Ten minutes after the break, Tijjani Reijnders also fired at the guests’ goal, but his shot hit the post.
Sarri reacted by bringing in Pedro and Alberto, but they too could not prevent AZ from making the liberating 2-1 in the 62nd minute. Karlsson found Vangelis Pavlidis on the edge of the box and the Greek pushed the ball into the bottom corner.
AZ then had plenty of chances for more. Sven Mijnans was just short of completing a good attack, while Jens Odgaard and Reijnders hit the outside of the post. Lazio did little to counter that and saw the European adventure end in Alkmaar. Thanks to the great result, AZ is certain of a place in the last eight of the Conference League.
Villarreal 0-1 Anderlecht
Anderlecht survived a difficult first half at Villarreal. After last week’s 1-1 in Belgium, the Spaniards had a good first half. However, it did not yield a goal and that cost Villarreal dearly. Islam Slimani scored in the 73rd minute on a pass from Michael Murillo and Anderlecht surprisingly took the lead. The visitors held on to that and reached the quarterfinals.
