AZ Alkmaar suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat in Armenia to FC Noah to leave their chances of progressing in the Conference League hanging by a thread.
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AZ Alkmaar are the last Dutch club standing in Europe this season and they were given a boost by the return of Sven Mijnans to the starting eleven, while Kees Smit was on the bench.
The first half display from AZ Alkmaar was awful as they failed to create anything and relied on Jeroen Zoet to make a number of saves to prevent them going behind.
In the second half, Noah took a deserved lead with Hovhannes Hambardzumyan finding the top corner with a lovely finish. That led to AZ Alkmaar turning to Smit and Mexx Meerdink.
Troy Parrott almost equalised but his shot hit the outside of the post while an error from Zoet was almost punished by the hosts but AZ survived a second.
Just minutes before the end, Parrott hit the post again and Meerdink failed to put in the rebound. AZ wanted a penalty for a foul but a goal kick was awarded and Noah held on for the victory.
The second leg next week in Alkmaar is now huge for AZ, who need to put in a much improved performance to prevent themselves being knocked out.
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