AZ Alkmaar were too strong for HNK Rijeka on Thursday evening and recorded a comfortable 4-1 victory.
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AZ may be struggling in the league, but they got off to a great start in the Europa League group with a 1-0 win over Napoli last week.
Against HNK Rijeka, AZ dominated from the start and they took the lead in the sixth minute. Dani de Wit was brought down in the box and Teun Koopmeiners netted the resulting penalty.
Marco Bizot prevented the equaliser shortly afterwards, and there was fury from the AZ bench when Calvin Stengs was on the end of a late challenge that luckily didn’t result in a serious injury.
It was 2-0 for AZ in the 20th minute when Fredrik Midtso played Albert Gudmundsson through with an excellent ball and the attacker made no mistake with the finish.
Midtso got his second assist in the 51st minute, this time setting up Jesper Karlsson to fire AZ 3-0 in front. Nine minutes later, Koopmeiners set up Gudmundsson to net his second and AZ’s fourth of the night.
Kulenovic pulled one back for HNK Rijeka but it did not prove to be anything other than a consolation. AZ also handed debuts to youngsters Maxim Gullit, son of Ruud, and 17-year-old striker Yusuf Barasi before the end.
AZ move onto six points, while in the group’s other game, Napoli defeated Real Sociedad 1-0.