AZ Alkmaar face an uphill battle to reach the Europa League knock-out stage after a 4-1 defeat to Augsburg.
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The Bundesliga’s bottom side recorded their first win of the season when they traveled to Alkmaar two weeks ago, and once again the Germans proved too strong for AZ.
Paraguayan Raul Bobadilla opened the scoring with a free-kick on 24 minutes before doubling Augsburg’s lead just after the half hour mark, when he was allowed too much time to pick out the bottom corner with a strike from distance.
Just before the break Vincent Janssen pulled one back with a nice volleyed finish, and at the start of the second half AZ pushed for an equaliser and struck the woodwork twice through Jeffrey Gouweleeuw and then Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
As AZ pushed forward they left too much space for the Augsburg attack and Dong-Won Ji made it 3-1 in the 66th minute before Bobadilla completed his hat-trick to round off the victory.
Despite the loss AZ still have a chance of qualifying as they sit three points behind both Augsburg and Partizan Belgrade, while group leaders Athletic Bilbao are on nine points.
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