szólj hozzá: AZ Alkmaar 2-1 Valencia (HD)
Jozy Altidore started for AZ and his size and strength was an obvious problem for Valencia, the third Spanish side on display in the quarter-finals. He was brought down in the box clearly impeded but Martin Atkinson did not see anything wrong. Valencia however looked far more dangerous and racked up a number of scoring chances through Roberto Soldado and Antonio Barragan.
Brett Holman’s goal came against the run of play as he sidefooted a nice volley from a Maarten Martens corner just before the half. Valencia equalized through Mehmet Topal’s powerful header. But late in the second half Holman returned the favour providing the outlet for Martens to score the winning goal.
By the way Martens is a potential Arsenal target now that Eden Hazard seems to be setting his high priced sight somewhere else and Mario Gotze has locked into a multi year contract at Dortmund.
Valencia return to the Mestalla and Unai Emery will re-group his team to put this quarter-finals to bed. It may well be three Spanish semi-finalists and a Sporting Lisbon side in an all Iberian peninsula showdown.