Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny admits his side were punished for a “careless start” in the 1-0 Europa League defeat to AZ Alkmaar, but praised the fighting spirit of his team.
Wout Weghorst claimed the only goal at the game at the Tallaght Stadium and it means the Lilywhites’ chances of progression to the knockout stages of the competition are now out of their hands ahead of the final group game against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Airtricity champions began in a tentative manner and were duly punished on nine minutes when Mats Seuntjen’s delivery was allowed to drop in the area and came back off the foot of Dane Massey before bouncing into the path of Weghorst, who slid it to the back of the net.
“We didn’t start well early on and I felt we needed to see out that period and we didn’t. We conceded an awful goal from our point of view,” Kenny told Eir Sport.
“It was so soft. If a team as good as AZ is going to come here, you want to make them work for their goals, so to give them a goal like that is unforgivable really.
“We got back into the game and had some good passages of play and were unfortunate on occasions I felt not to equalise.”
Dundalk failed to keep possession of the ball at times, with Daryl Horgan admitting afterwards that the AZ Alkmaar's relentless closing down of space foiled their customary attacking gameplan.
The loss of Chris Shields before the match and the luckless Stephen O’Donnell didn’t help matters in midfield, but Kenny praised the attitude of his players to keep going.
“Overall, AZ had much better chances than us and Gary Rogers kept us in it with a few good saves, but I think the players showed their resilience until the final whistle.
"We have beaten Maccabi already. We’re not asking the players to do something they haven’t done already"
“The players kept going right to the end and showed great spirit. They showed that we are not out of it yet.
“We were punished for our careless start and paid the price for it.”
They are level with Maccabi Tel Aviv on four points in Group D ahead of their final fixture in Israel, though a win for AZ over Zenit St Petersburg, who are comfortably through already, will confirm Dundalk’s exit regardless of the result in Tel Aviv.
Dundalk's defeat means qualification for the Europa League knockout stages is now out of their hands pic.twitter.com/wPUZt7rsB9
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 24, 2016
Kenny however is not throwing in the towel just yet.
“It’s a very, very disappointing result for us, but we’re still in with a shout. We have to go to Israel and win which is a tough ask, but we have beaten Maccabi already,” he said.
“We’re not asking the players to do something they haven’t done already.
“We’ll have to give it a go out there.”
