Ratings & Reactions: Villa v AZ Alkmaar

[El Zen]

39 minutes ago, imavillan said:

dog of the match.....woof woof 

MUTM

[villan-scott]

39 minutes ago, imavillan said:

dog of the match.....woof woof 

Which one?

[Icarium]

Lucky escape thanks to some inexplicable refereeing (at both ends).

Need to find ways to create more in these games where teams sit deep.

I do look forward to being able to have ramsey, zanolio and buendia on at the same time to run at these teams when the wide play isn't working

[useless]

We're within our rights to be more upset about their goal that was offside, than they are about our goal from the corner that shouldn't have been, the corner wasn't reviewed as I don't think they're allowed to use VAR for those kind of decisions, so that wrong decision was just a human error from the officials, whereas VAR had a chance to review their goal and still gave it.

I thought we weren't great but weren't that bad either, felt similar to the second half of the Forest game, but this time we managed to get a couple of goals, so was an improvement on that.

[useless]

That dog scared me when I first saw it, I couldn't tell if it was real or not

[Talldarkandransome]

Got over the line, slow burner but got there in the end.

Apparently arriving at the ground 20 mins before kick off isn't enough to not miss kick off.

Digne MOTM

[Ponky]

I suspect that corner was given because the ref couldn't believe Kamara managed to miss that goal without a massive deflection.

Great vision from Doug to go over the top to Ollie. Sometimes if there's a bus in your way the only option is to go over it. We need to find more avenues to goal when the box is packed so I expect to see that option a bit more frequently.

[The_Rev]

[Lerner's Driver]

32 minutes ago, villan-scott said:

Which one?

Your Mum.

[Adman]

From the upper holte we thought it wasn't a corner and that their goal was offside. Jesus Christ

The amount of chances we're creating per game seems to be slowing down and the diagonal over the top ball was causing us horrendous problems.  Plenty to improve on but well done boys for getting 3 points from a tough fixture  

[Jas10]

 

[Jas10]

 

[Brumerican]

 

It was definitely a corner . If you watch the replay on a smart phone from 50ft away whilst squinting there's definitely the aura of a corner in there. 

 

[useless]

What should also be remembered is that AZ are actually a very decent side, we've no right to just turn up and outplay such a team, eight wins and two draws from ten games for them in the league, and this is their fifith consecutive season playing Europe, 6-2 aggregate scoreline for us over the two games is very impressive, not many would have predicted that beforehand, and most would have settled for any kind of win in both games.

I think we were actually more worthy winners today than is realized, them getting some close offsides calls is givina false perception that we were under more threat than we actually were, if our trap is working which it was, then we're not actually under threat

[DJBOB]

28 minutes ago, useless said:

What should also be remembered is that AZ are actually a very decent side, we've no right to just turn up and outplay such a team, eight wins and two draws from ten games for them in the league, and this is their fifith consecutive season playing Europe, 6-2 aggregate scoreline for us over the two games is very impressive, not many would have predicted that beforehand, and most would have settled for any kind of win in both games.

I think we were actually more worthy winners today than is realized, them getting some close offsides calls is givina false perception that we were under more threat than we actually were, if our trap is working which it was, then we're not actually under threat

AZ are no chumps and you can see some of their build up play occasionally came off and those weren’t just long hoofs by their CB’s. 
 
 

[Paddywhack]

Even at 1-0 down I knew we were going to win, because we always win in claret shorts.

[ozvillafan]

Thought Alkmaar played a very good disciplined game, especially defensively - but we were clearly the better team despite struggling to create clear-cut chances.

3 things I learned:

• Our defensive squad - even without Mings - is exceptionally good.
• I'm usually dismayed when Matt Ryan is beaten - but not today.
• I don't know what offside is. I used to know, but not anymore.

[TomC]

Somehow I left him out of my list, but I agree with everyone who said Tielemans was very good tonight.

You can see from his last few appearances (including as a sub in the PL) that he's beginning to settle here.

 

[tinker]

Officials stepped in to try and ruin the game. Nice possession all game but again lacked aggression in the final 3rd. Dignes for all the space he gets in and around the oppositions box is very wasteful. Ramsey and Buendia are a big miss in games like this. UTV 

[Ponky]

Has there been an explanation of why Lenglet's goal was ruled out?