AZ Alkmaar have started their Eredivisie campaign with a 1-0 defeat at RKC Waalwijk.

AZ Alkmaar have lost Calvin Stengs, Marco Bizot, Myron Boadu and Jonas Svensson this summer while Owen Wijndal is still unfit. Pascal Jansen decided to leave Teun Koopmeiners on the bench as transfer speculation surrounds the AZ captain. New signing Vangelis Pavlidis was also on the bench as Albert Gudmundsson started up front.

AZ had the ball in the net through Zakaria Aboukhlal and Dani de Wit but on both occasions, the offside flag went up. At the other end, Richard van der Venne saw a header cleared off the line.

Just before the break, RKC did take the lead with Michiel Kramer netting his first goal since joining the club.

AZ pushed for the equaliser in the second half and Koopmeiners and Pavlidis were introduced at the hour mark. The visitors pushed RKC back into their own half but they could not find a goal with Pavlidis and De Wit going close. The introduction of 17-year-old Ernest Poku provided a spark but RKC held on to claim the victory.

RKC get off to a great start while AZ need to improve by the time they face Celtic in the Europa League on Thursday.




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