Pascal Jansen has his first win as AZ Alkmaar boss after they defeated FC Twente 3-1 in Enschede.
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AZ were dumped out of the Europa League in midweek after a poor 2-1 loss against HNK Rijeka. They went into the game against FC Twente without Dani de Wit, Jonas Svensson, and the suspended Fredrik Midtso. Tijjani Reijnders came in to start for AZ.
FC Twente defeated Ajax last weekend and they were the more threatening side in the early stages with Queensy Menig hitting the bar, while Danilo also put a good chance wide.
In the 34th minute, Calvin Stengs played Myron Boadu in on goal and Joel Drommel brought the striker down. Teun Koopmeiners scored the resulting penalty to make it 1-0.
It became 2-0 before the break as Yukinari Sugawara raced onto Jesper Karlsson’s through ball before lashing a strike past Drommel.
AZ were comfortable but in the 73rd minute, Stengs brought down Halil Dervisoglu and Danilo made it 2-1 from the spot.
Twente went looking for the equaliser but in the last minute, Jayden Oosterwolde was deemed to have fouled Zakaria Aboukhlal. A penalty was initially awarded, but it was then ruled to be a free-kick and a red card for the left-back. Koopmeiners fired the free-kick into the top corner from the edge of the box to seal the victory.
AZ are still seventh while Twente are one spot above them.