Uefa Europa League: Ferencváros 4 AZ Alkmaar 3
Turns out this up and coming pair of Irish coaches know what they are doing.
Robbie Keane, the newly minted Ferencváros manager, must have licked his lips when the team sheets dropped an hour before kick-off. The Hungarian champions were at full strength. The visiting Dutch, not so much.
Troy Parrott benched. Well, until the Dubliner arrived late to wallop a goal that made it 4-2 and brought some respectability to the AZ Alkmaar performance.
When showering Parrott with praise for how rapidly he has taken to football in the Netherlands, AZ coach Maarten Martens dropped a subtle hint on Wednesday evening that the 22-year-old might sit out this Europa League affair.
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“I am convinced there is more to come from Troy,” said Martens, “especially on the physical part, because he has to get used to playing twice sometimes three times a week.”
Sure enough, the Ireland subplot took a blow as Parrott was spotted with the other substitutes during the warm-up. The number nine was held as Martens effectively sacrificed an outside chance of direct progress to the last 16.
Ferencváros will play Roma or Czech side Viktoria Plzeň in the next round.
Thanks to Parrott’s winner against Roma last week, Alkmaar had also secured a playoff to reach the knockout stages, where they will face either Galatasaray or Real Sociedad. So Martens’s focus was half-switched to scaling the Eredivisie table as they are currently sixth and outside European qualification ahead of the trip to Willem II on Sunday.
Parrott has now bagged 13 goals this season. The north Holland club need him to double that tally to keep pace with the giants of Totaalvoetbal – PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord.
None of this interested the Green Monster Ultra-wall down the Budapest end of the Groupama Arena. Keane and his assistant coach Rory Delap were the only Irish names to concern them.
It took a bit of explaining to the locals why Liam Delap, Rory’s son, who has eight Premier League goals for Ipswich Town this season, is being tipped for a senior England cap under Thomas Tuchel. We redirected the query to Keane’s cousin Morrissey: “Irish blood, English heart.”
Delap senior was the main man beforehand, putting Ferencváros through their paces. Everyone remembers his long throw-ins rather than the fact he only won 11 caps for the Republic of Ireland. That was enough for Keane who brought his old team-mate to Maccabi Tel Aviv last season, where they delivered a league title after being dumped out of the Uefa Conference League by eventual champions Olympiacos.
“I think we overachieved with Maccabi, there is no question,” said Keane this week. “We lost to the champions Olympiacos, a top team, but the experience we gained was huge.”
It’s an established partnership now; Keane the manager continually turned to Delap the coach for support.
Typically, Ireland’s record goalscorer looked comfortable in the combustible surroundings. Hands in pockets initially, it took 51 seconds before he was wolf whistling ‘Fradi’ players to keep the back five intact.
Mohammad Abu Fani must have set the gaffer’s pulse racing when the Israeli midfielder fresh-aired an early ball that invited the Alkmaar kids to rush forward. Parrott would have zipped on to that chance.
But luck has followed Keane from Tel Aviv to Budapest with Ferencváros taking the lead inside eight minutes when Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane ghosted into the box to nod Adama Traore’s cross into the Alkmaar net.
Keane punched the sky before VAR temporarily stalled the party. Check complete. 1-0.
The hardest Ultras went topless on 33 minutes when Traoré‘s piledriver gave Alkmaar goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro no chance. The Mali international’s stunning strike prompted Delap to envelope Keane in a bear hug, perhaps stopping him from doing his trademark cartwheel celebration.
Keane did show off his touch before half-time, killing a wayward ball stone dead. It was that sort of night. Almost everything clicked, like when Abu Fani picked out Ben Romdhane to head his second and make it 3-0 before the break.
The occasion belonged to Robbie Keane and Ferencváros, although it did not pass without incident. On the hour mark a sustained fight broke out between visiting Dutch fans and the match stewards. As makeshift missiles rained down on the ugly scene, riot police moved in.
Meanwhile, Parrott slipped on to the scene to enhance his case to feature when Heimir Hallgrímsson’s Ireland travel to Bulgaria in March for a Nations League relegation playoff.
Sven Mijnans hit two goals in between Parrott’s slick finish but a Barnabas Varga penalty gave the hosts enough space to avoid a late collapse.
Overall, this is how a home debut as the foreign manager at Hungary’s biggest football institution is done. The Budapest derby against MTK brings everyone back to the Groupama on Sunday with Keane earning the precious commodity of time to build a managerial career he hopes will last “20 years”. Year two is off to a flyer.
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