Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 10:59 PM• Mart van Mourik

AZ achieved the maximum score on Saturday evening. In the home game against PEC Zwolle, Pascal Jansen’s team managed to turn a 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 victory. Two header goals by Mees de Wit gave the away team the lead, after which Dani de Wit and Vangelis Pavlidis tied the score, also with the head. The latter also scored the winning goal. Thanks to the victory, AZ climbs to seventh position in the Eredivisie ranking with fifteen points, PEC Zwolle remains the red lantern bearer with four points.

From the first whistle it became clear that the bottom of the Eredivisie would not resign itself to the underdog role. PEC started much fresher than the home team and scored the opening goal after only five minutes of play. Mark Pabai pulled the ball in front and Mees de Wit cleverly headed in: 0-1. That same tandem made it 0-2 seven minutes later. Again Pabai gave a high cross and this time Mees de Wit aimed his head low into the corner, while the previous goal went high through the middle. AZ woke up and realized that it also had a ‘De Wit’ in its ranks. Owen Wijndal had a measured cross in the house and Dani de Wit headed in the connecting goal.

It became the first half of the header goals, definitively confirmed by the equalizer of Vangelis Pavlidis. Jesper Karlsson served the Greek, who worked the leather backwards with the head past compatriot Kostas Lamprou. The visitors in the AFAS Stadium were spoiled and that did not stop at the halftime signal. In the 52nd minute, Wijndal again made good on the left and delivered to Pavlidis: this time the striker made his second of the evening with the foot. However, the people of Zwolle did not give in and kept pushing, partly under the leadership of an excellent playing Mees de Wit.

After 67 minutes of play, Vindahl had to stretch to fish out a life-threatening effort by Thomas van den Belt. After that, the poison was gone for both teams; only the still fresh substitute Zakaria Aboukhlal managed to produce half a chance in the last ten minutes. Next Thursday, the Romanian CFR Cluj will be waiting for AZ in the Conference League, in which the Alkmaarders can strengthen the lead in Group D.