St. Parrott's Day in Prague: AZ run riot against Sparta to reach ECL quarterfinals

[p]The Dutch visitors took a one-goal advantage with them to the Czech capital following a 2-1 win in Alkmaar last week. Both [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/az-alkmaar/2RxOow1i/"]AZ[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sparta-prague/6qA358jH/"]Sparta Prague[/a] enjoyed perfect weekends ahead of Thursday's crucial UEFA Conference League clash, with Sparta beating [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/slovacko/MNEDyOlF/"]Slovácko[/a] 5-2 and AZ beating [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/heracles/bB3JbZpA/"]Heracles Almelo[/a] 4-0.[/p][p][b]AZ enjoyed a true dream start in the epet ARENA after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/smit-keet/G0KFeND3/"]Kees Smit[/a] found [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/jensen-isak/QRPVnJsE/"]Isak Jensen[/a] near Sparta's box, setting the Danish winger up for a one-on-one. Jensen teed it up for his right foot and zipped the ball in [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/surovcik-jakub/fwXhJa0F/"]Jakub Surovčík[/a]'s far corner to open the scoring in the eighth minute.[/b][/p][p]With everything still to play for, Sparta Prague played an anonymous first half with very few minor chances. The Czech giants recorded just two attempts after the second minute, both of which couldn't test [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/zoet-jeroen/IDI0wVTT/"]Jeroen Zoet[/a].[/p][embed guid="a9ec03cb-ced9-453e-a986-088a03301a7a" url="https://x.com/AZAlkmaar/status/2034748551108964483?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]AZ followed suit and seemed happy to consolidate the result, with only [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/penetra/Wd3tmbHR/"]Alexandre Penetra[/a] coming close to a second Dutch goal, but failing to place his header between the posts.[/p][p][b]The team of interim manager Lee-Roy Echtold looked to have put the game beyond all doubt when Irish hero [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/parrott-troy/K6H9Uptn/"]Troy Parrott[/a] doubled AZ's lead with an easy finish from a pinpoint [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kasius-dense/6wrwUdEm/"]Denzo Kasius cross[/a], giving AZ a three-goal aggregate lead with 30 minutes remaining in Prague.[/b][/p][p][b]AZ's rout continued mere minutes later when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mijnans-sven/OhTLBILt/"]Sven Mijnans[/a] put the final nail in Sparta's coffin with a rocket from distance, which Surovčík could only watch as it sailed into the net for the 3-0.[/b][/p][embed guid="9f95512c-b026-40f2-9202-3090aa617f20" url="https://x.com/ZS_Voetbal/status/2034742542093173157?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]The epet ARENA finally celebrated a Sparta goal after 67 minutes, but were left bitterly disappointed after a rapid VAR check ruled [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/vojta-matyas/dK1AFaRf/"]Matyás Vojta[/a] offside, thus disallowing the goal.[/p][p][b]A lightning-quick counter added salt to Sparta's wounds four minutes after Vojta's disallowed goal - Troy Parrott was launched deep into Sparta's half and laid the ball off to an open Ro-[a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/daal-ro-zangelo/b975TKAK/"]Zangelo Daal[/a], who rolled the ball into an empty net to add an exclamation mark to AZ's remarkable evening.[/b][/p][p]AZ calmly saw out the contest and reached their first European quarterfinals since 2014. The Alkmaar side, who'll also play the Dutch Cup final in April, will face Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk or Polish side Lech Poznan on April 9th and 16th.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/az-alkmaar-2RxOow1i/sparta-prague-6qA358jH/?mid=CzHRKU1U"]Check out the full match statistics on Flashscore[/a][/b][/p][image alt="Key match stats" id="bfcd7f08-5d9d-4aed-953d-64681c63b894" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="38398a77-2425-4187-98e1-a1b56e954cd5" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /]