Boro through with point from draw

AZ Alkmaar 0 Middlesbrough 0

Middlesbrough grabbed the point they needed to ensure their place in the knockout stages of this season’s UEFA Cup with a goalless draw against previously free-scoring AZ Alkmaar in Holland.

The Dutch side, currently third in the Eredivisie, had not failed to register in six previous games at the Alkmaarderhout this season but they drew a blank against the Teessiders as Steve McClaren’s men took the initiative in the race for the top spot in Group D.

A superb defensive display from Chris Riggott and the heroics of keeper Brad Jones, who made magnificent saves from Kenneth Perez, Shota Arvaladze and substitute Danny Koevermans, laid the foundation for a well-earned draw which ensures the Teessiders will resume European action in February.

Victory over Bulgarians Litex Lovech next month could see Boro top the group and earn an easier route through the latter stages of the competition, and that provided a welcome antidote to yesterday’s news of defender Abel Xavier’s 18-month drugs ban.

Louis van Gaal’s men face a trip to Bulgaria next week and then Grasshoppers at home as they attempt to snatch top place back from the Barclays Premiership side, but the psychological advantage left Holland with the visitors this evening.

AZ will move into a brand new 17,000-capacity stadium in time for next season, a measure of their emergence as a force in Dutch football, but it was at the much more modest Alkmaarderhout, which holds only 8,000 spectators, that McClaren’s troops walked out in front of a nevertheless passionate crowd.

Boro were allocated only 407 tickets for the game, which kicked off in wintry conditions, and the travelling fans huddled together behind Jones’ goal during the first-half must have feared the worst as the opening skirmishes unfolded.

McClaren opted to field Slovakian Szilard Nemeth in the hole behind front two Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka after resting skipper Gareth Southgate, Franck Queudrue, Stuart Parnaby and Aiyegbeni Yakubu and arriving in Holland without the ineligible Fabio Rochemback.

However, that system initially left full-back Emanuel Pogatetz exposed to tricky right winger Tarik Sektioui as George Boateng struggled to cover him from a three-man midfield and the Moroccan made the most of the space ahead of him.

Sektioui and Danish striker Perez proved regular threats for a side which had scored 24 goals in six home games this season before kick-off, and they would have added another with 13 minutes gone had Italian referee Gianluca Paparesta not given them the benefit of a generous offside shout.

Australian keeper Jones, deputising for injured compatriot Mark Schwarzer, would argue he deserved a slice of luck after making a superb double save to deny first Perez and then former Rangers frontman Arvaladze in the build-up to Sektioui’s strike, and he rescued the visitors once again 10 minutes later with an even better stop from the Dane.

In the meantime, opposite number Henk Timmer had made the most of Nemeth’s hesitation to deny him a strike at goal after Hasselbaink, on his first return to his former club, had played him in, and the Dutchman also got a touch on Viduka’s low 26th-minute drive as the visitors created chances of their own.

Boro’s front two were proving a real handful, but had it not been for the efforts of Riggott and Ugo Ehiogu at the other end, Jones might have been even busier before the break.

Sektioui’s examination of Pogatetz continued after the break, and the Austrian, who broke his nose at the weekend, earned himself a booking on 49 minutes, although his caution came as a result of a challenge on full-back Gretar Steinsson.

AZ continued to dominate possession, although with little sign of breaking Boro down, and when they did look like doing so, Sektioui was unable to find the final ball.

Having had little success down the right after the break, the home side tried the left and after Arvaladze had left Ehiogu for dead to set up Denny Lanzaat, full-back Tim de Cler delivered a 58th-minute cross for the same player to volley towards goal, only to be denied by a superb block by Pogatetz.

Riggott saw a header deflected over at the other end four minutes later, but in the meantime, van Gaal had replaced Sektioui with Martijn Meerdink, prompting McClaren to respond by taking off Viduka and James Morrison and replacing them with Yakubu and Parnaby.

Chances came and went at both ends, Meerdink firing over from close range under pressure from Ehiogu and George Boateng forcing a solid save from Timmer with a skidding 70th-minute effort.

Jones had a scare on 81 minutes when his weak punch dropped for Barry van Galen, but Ehiogu got in a superb block to keep him out, and the ‘keeper redeemed himself with an excellent save from Koevermans with six minutes remaining as Boro eased their way to the final whistle.