Vincent Janssen scored four goals as AZ Alkmaar hammered ten-man PEC Zwolle 5-1 in the AFAS Stadion.

janssen az pecThe home sides challenge for third had gone off the rails recently, but against PEC Zwolle, AZ dominated from the start with Vincent Janssen twice denied by defender Bart Schenkeveld. However on 20 minutes Schenkeveld fouled Dagbey Dos Santos in the box resulting in a penalty which Janssen calmly dispatched.

Five minutes later it was 2-0 as Mickey van der Hart could only parry Stijn Wuytens free kick and Janssen reacted quickest to the rebound to fire in.

PEC Zwolle gave themselves hope on 63 minutes as Kingsley Ehizibue headed in Ouasim Bouy’s cross, but AZ went straight down the other end through Janssen, who’s backheel set up Dos Santos to rifle a strike into the top corner.

The away side’s evening then turned into a disaster on 68 minutes with Van der Hart bringing down Alireza Jahanbakhsh, earning himself a red card and AZ a penalty. With all three subs used, Lars Veldwijk was forced to go in goals and didn’t get close to Janssen’s penalty which sealed his hat-trick.

Surprisingly Veldwijk then made two excellent saves to deny Markus Henriksen and Dos Santos before eventually Janssen squeezed a close range shot past him to complete the rout.

The victory lifts AZ to fourth, while Janssen is now four goals clear of Luuk de Jong as the Eredivisie’s top scorer with 25 goals.




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