Heerenveen scored twice in injury time to seal a 3-2 win over AZ Alkmaar in the first-leg of their European playoff semi-final.

AZ Alkmaar have had a disappointing campaign with a fifth place finish not good enough for the club that expects to be in Europe. They went in the playoffs as favourites to take the Conference League spot and they had the better of the first-half in Friesland, without ever really troubling Erwin Mulder.

Thirteen minutes into the second half, Heerenveen had the lead with Sydney van Hooijdonk slotting in after some poor goalkeeping by Peter Vindahl Jensen. The lead only lasted a minute before Hakon Evjen fired AZ Alkmaar level.

Vangelis Pavlidis then netted a cross from Fredrik Midtsjø to put AZ Alkmaar the lead and it appeared they were heading home with an advantage.

However, Amin Sarr curled a lovely finish in to equalise in the 90th minute before Tibor Halilovic netted a winner deep into injury time.

Heerenveen now heads to Alkmaar on Sunday with a narrow victory. AZ Alkmaar needs to turn it around or it will top off a poor campaign for the club.




admin (14203 Posts)

Follow @Footballoranje_ on Twitter