AZ is drifting away from Champions League football after a major defeat at Heracles

NOS Football•today, 8:44 PM

View the summary of Heracles Almelo – AZ

For AZ, the big defeat means bad news in the battle for third place, which entitles them to the preliminary rounds of the Champions League. It is now four points behind competitor FC Twente, which still has a match in hand.

At the same time, Heracles Almelo is doing excellent business in the battle for direct enforcement: it increased the gap from sixteenth place to seven points. This means that Almelo seems to be preparing for another year of Premier League football.

After the match, AZ coach Maarten Martens responded briefly to the new general manager Zeeman. “As a Flemish, Flandrien, I follow cycling very closely. He is someone who has proven a lot in cycling, so we are happy that he is joining.”

AZ was the favorite in advance: the Alkmaarders had won five of their last six Premier League matches. Home team Heracles had only won one of the last six league matches.

Yet it was the men of Herac who took the lead. After just under twenty minutes, the ball was returned to the edge of the penalty area by PSV loanee Fredrik Oppegård, where Brian de Keersmaecker was ready to take a shot. The Belgian did a great job: with his left hand he curled the ball unstoppably into the top corner.

AZ did not give in and remained the dominant team in the first half. However, three disastrous minutes did the Alkmaarders the tie.

Between the 38th and 40th minute, AZ gave away two penalties. First it was Riechedly Bazoer who attacked Hornkamp, ​​then Bryan Limbombe was put down by Kristijan Belic. Both penalties were coolly used by Hornkamp, ​​who shot in a different angle both times.

Hornkamp thus became the first player ever to score in each of his first six home games for Heracles in the Premier League. In total, he will have nine Premier League goals in 2024, only PSV’s Luuk de Jong has more (10).

After the break a monotonous spectacle took place. The better-playing AZ continued to look for the attack without becoming really dangerous, while Heracles mainly tried to strike on the counter.

Especially in the last minutes, the fatigue was clearly visible among the Herac residents, who had played the derby against FC Twente on Sunday afternoon and had therefore had one day less rest than AZ, which played on Saturday.

In the final phase, Heracles turned it into a real football party. First, substitute Mohamed Sankoh scored in an acrobatic manner after a clever lob from Jordy Bruijn, then the same Sankoh also put the 5-0 on the scoreboard.

With this he gave Heracles the shared biggest victory for the club this Premier League season. For AZ it was even the biggest defeat in the Premier League since October 2018, when they lost 5-0 to Ajax.