AZ was mainly in disbelief on Thursday evening about Aston Villa’s equalizer in the 2-1 loss in the Conference League. It fell after just over an hour from an incorrectly given corner kick.
“It was not a corner, 100 percent,” said Jordy Clasie Veronica. In a duel with Boubacar Kamara, who missed a great opportunity, Clasie indeed did not touch the ball. “I immediately said it to the referee. The fact that the ball then flies in from the given corner kick makes it even more sad.”
The wrongly awarded corner turned out to be a very expensive one for AZ. Diego Carlos headed home from the corner, about ten minutes after Vangelis Pavlidis’ opening goal. Not much later, Ollie Watkins made it 2-1, leaving AZ empty-handed again against the number five of the Premier League.
“It was a human error on the part of the referee, but then the ball should not go in like that afterwards,” Martins Indi was disappointed. Yet the defender was not dissatisfied. “We didn’t let ourselves be fooled after that goal. There might even have been more to it. We will take that with us into the future.”
Jansen: ‘Lines judge was convinced’
After the final whistle at Villa Park, trainer Pascal Jansen also visited referee Luis Godinho to ask for an explanation. “He didn’t see it and the linesman was convinced it was a corner.”
“But then we still have to defend better to prevent that goal,” the AZ coach continued. “That also applies to the second goal they score.”
Due to the loss, AZ seems to be able to forget about wintering in Europe. Yet Jansen does not travel home completely dissatisfied. “If you can achieve this with the number five in the Premier League, then you have done quite well. But in the end it is always about the result.”
The post first appeared on www.nu.nl