AZ Alkmaar manager John van den Brom has stated his side must beat Dundalk on Thursday night or their chance of progressing in the Europa League will be over.
- By James Rowe
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AZ currently sit bottom of Group D having not recorded a single victory in their opening four games, but wins over Dundalk and Zenit St Petersburg will still give them the opportunity of reaching the knock-out round.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Van den Brom said, ”We have to win our two remaining games in order to still be in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout phase. If we do not win against Dundalk FC tonight then it is over and our goal at the start of the season was to have a successful European campaign. I stated before our last two Europa League matches that we also had to win and we did not manage to do that ”.
”We are playing against a physically strong team tonight who showed us in the match in Alkmaar what they are capable of. But also in that match we spurned a lot of chances to win the game and we can only blame ourselves that we did not win at home to Dundalk FC.
”I fully believe that we are a better team than Dundalk FC although that is not the case according to the current Europa League table. But it is up to us to show that tomorrow and turn it around.”
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