UEL | AZ Alkmaar 1-2 Juventus: Special K success in Alkmaar

Juventus secured an impressive 2-1 win away to AZ Alkmaar, who were unbeaten at home in Europe for over three years, as Teun Koopmeiners and Randal Kolo Muani kept strong Europa League form going.

The Bianconeri had a much-needed 2-0 victory over Napoli on Sunday and were unbeaten in the Europa League with two wins and a 2-2 draw against Rennes. Injuries continued to pile up, as Weston McKennie joined Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Nico Gonzalez, Francisco Conceicao, Zeki Celik, Khephren Thuram and Kamil Grabara on the treatment table, so Jeff Ekhator was added to the UEFA list.

Teun Koopmeiners faced his younger brother Peer, with both coming up through the AZ youth academy, and the crowd had a pre-match banner depicting them as children. The Dutch side lost the opening Europa League fixture at Sunderland, then beat Hapoel Beer Sheva and Ararat-Armenia, but were unbeaten in 17 UEFA home fixtures stretching back to October 2023.

Jeroen Zoet, Jizz Hornkamp, Wouter Goes and Stije Resink were out of action, but Kees Smit was back in the squad for the first time since September 20. They lost their last two Eredivisie games without finding the net.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Randal Kolo Muani’s angled drive flashed across the face of goal to skim the far post, and the ex-PSG man was instrumental in the opening goal.

Kolo Muani flicked the ball up over a defender to get down the right and pulled back to the edge of the area, where Teun Koopmeiners was ready to sweep in with the inside of the left boot. The midfielder did not celebrate against his hometown club, with his brother captaining them.

Things went from bad to worse for the hosts, who were forced into a change for the Lewis Schouten injury moments later.

Kerim Alajbegovic’s scorcher skimmed the crossbar at the far top corner from just inside the box, but AZ Alkmaar started to push back, Guglielmo Vicario right behind the deflected Dave Kwakman strike.

Juventus doubled their lead when a high Kolo Muani press forced Mees de Wit into an error, Nick Woltemade returning the pass for the Frenchman to bend the left-foot finish into the far bottom corner.

Alajbegovic hesitated when Teun Koopmeiners intercepted a mistaken Jari De Busser pass and the chance went begging, then Federico Gatti sprinted from his own half only to over-hit the final ball for Kolo Muani.

Smit came off the bench and saw his effort charged down by Lloyd Kelly, then fired another very promising attempt over from 12 yards while the hosts had penalty appeals rejected when Elijah Dijkstra went down under pressure from Kelly.

AZ Alkmaar did eventually get back into the game when Ayoub Oufkir robbed Kelly at the touchline and sent Dijkstra down the right, pulling back for Mexx Meerdink to tap in from close range.

Suddenly the hosts were fired up and had the ball in the net again during added time, but Meerdink was offside when his header forced an extraordinary Guglielmo Vicario save, so the rebound from Mees de Wit did not count.

The pressure was on to the final whistle, including a Smit free kick into the crowd that could’ve gone anywhere, but Juve held on.

T Koopmeiners 19 (J), Kolo Muani 37 (J), Meerdink 88 (A)