A NIGHTMARE FOR TERRORS
| Published date | 12 August 2022 |
| Publication title | Express, The/The Express on Sunday |
Glenn Middleton's goal last week had United in front, but it quickly became apparent this was going to be a nightmare evening for Jack Ross's side in theAFAS Stadion.
Vangelis Pavlidis got the inside track from Celtic star Giorgos Giakoumakis and he certainly used it, netting twice, as did Tijjani Reijnders, while Hakon Evjen, Dani de Wit and Mayckel Lahdo completed the rout.
AZ now go into the play-off round against GilVicente, while Ross and Co lick their wounds.
This hammering might take a while to get over but time isn't something they have with a trip to Hearts on Sunday.
Around 2,000 Arabs travelled with hope, but a fun Wednesday in Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt was likely the highlight as they mixed with locals, visitors and police.
The United fans, tidied up after themselves, collecting all their party leftovers to throw it into bin bags.
But it was Ross's team who were rubbish last night. AZ, despite trailing, came into this game confident they'd turn the tie around.
Their impressive record of reaching the group stage of European competition since 2018 wasn't about to end, although it had looked like a trademark European performance from United in the first 20 minutes.
They took the sting out of the game at every opportunity.
You could see the home side trying to overload United's right-back area, getting Milos Kerkez forward from left-back.
United failed to sense the danger and it proved costly as AZ levelled the tie on 21 minutes. Reijnders produced the killer pass to release Kerkez and he picked out Pavlidis's front-post run to net. United almost produced an instant response. Liam Smith put in a great cross with a defender hooking clear from Steven Fletcher before it fell to Ian Harkes, who cracked in an acrobatic shot that forced Hobie Verhulst to push over.
The game turned on that moment to become a first-half horror show.
Dylan Levitt tried to wrestle the ball back in midfield but it fell to Reijnders and he arrowed a low shot into the corner past an unsighted Mark Birighitti on 31 minutes.
United were rattled and the third goal arrived five minutes later as formerAZ trialist Birighitti came off his line for a Evjen corner but failed to get there for Pavlidis to head into an empty net.
United were in freefall and AZ...
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