AZ Alkmaar’s excellent form continued with a comfortable 4-1 win over Groningen in the AFAS Stadion on Saturday.
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John van den Brom’s side are playing some of the best football in the Eredivisie since the winter break and they looked on point from the start once again on Saturday as they put pressure on the Groningen backline. Eventually after 24 minutes the pressure proved too much with Sergio Padt dropping Ron Vlaar’s header into the path of Vincent Janssen, and the in-form striker netted his fifteenth goal of the season.
Ten minutes later it was 2-0 with Vlaar slamming in his first goal for AZ after a corner wasn’t dealt with by the away side. A rout seemed on the cards when AZ were awarded a penalty before half time with Juninho Bacuna bringing down Ridgeciano Haps, but Padt saved Markus Henriksen’s poor spot-kick.
Early in the second half Haps did make it 3-0 from Dabney dos Santos’s pass before Michael de Leeuw pulled one back from the spot after the attacker was brought down by Joris van Overeem.
Any chance of a comeback was ended by Henriksen, who made up for his earlier miss by firing a corner into the roof of the net.
AZ climb above Heracles into third, while Groningen sit 10th.
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