Juventus End AZ Alkmaar's Three-Year Home European Unbeaten Run with a 2-1 Win
Juventus ended a run that had lasted for more than three years on Thursday night, 5 November 2026, beating AZ Alkmaar 2-1 at the AFAS Stadion in the UEFA Europa League league phase. Teun Koopmeiners opened the scoring in the 19th minute against his former club, Randal Kolo Muani added a second in the 37th, and although Mexx Meerdink pulled one back in the 88th minute, the Italian side held on. It was Juventus' third win of the European campaign, and it came in front of 18,954 supporters, with Damian Sylwestrzak as the referee.
The result mattered for more than the three points. AZ had not lost a home match in Europe for over three years, a record that had become part of the club's identity in Alkmaar. Opponents had come to the AFAS Stadion expecting a difficult evening, and for a long time that expectation had been justified. Juventus changed that in one night, and they did it by scoring twice in the first half, before AZ had time to settle into the kind of game that usually suits them at home.
Photo by Mohamed Ishaq Villan on Pexels (Pexels photo ID 8994432). This is a free stock illustration, not a photo from the match.
Koopmeiners was the perfect player to break the deadlock. The Dutch midfielder knows this stadium well, having played for AZ before moving on, and his return carried an extra edge. In the 19th minute, Kolo Muani set him up, and Koopmeiners finished with the calm of a player who had done it here before. It was a goal that silenced the home crowd for a moment, and it also gave Juventus the platform they needed. Instead of chasing the game, they could now manage it, and that suited a side coached by Luciano Spalletti, who has always valued control and patience.
The second goal, in the 37th minute, underlined how well Juventus were playing in the first half. This time Nick Woltemade provided the assist, and Kolo Muani finished it. The French forward has been one of the stories of Juventus' European season: he now has three goals and two assists in four Europa League games. That is a strong return for a player who is still settling into his role, and it shows how important he has become to the team's attacking play. With a two-goal lead at half-time, Juventus were in a position they had earned, not one they had stumbled into.
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AZ, to their credit, did not fold. A team that has gone more than three years without a home defeat in Europe does not lose its belief because of two first-half goals. They pushed forward after the break, tried to find a way through a well-organised Juventus defence, and kept the pressure on even as the minutes passed. The home side's persistence was rewarded late on, when Meerdink scored in the 88th minute. Suddenly, a game that had looked comfortable for Juventus became tense again, and the final minutes were played with the home crowd urging their team forward for an equaliser.
Juventus held on, and that is a skill in itself. Winning away in Europe is rarely about playing beautiful football for 90 minutes; it is about managing the difficult moments, and Juventus did that well enough. They had taken their chances when they came, they had kept their shape when AZ pushed, and they had not panicked when the late goal arrived. Spalletti's side will know that there is still work to do, but a win like this, away from home against a team with such a strong home record, is the kind of result that builds confidence.
For AZ, the defeat will hurt, but it should not erase what they have achieved. A home unbeaten run of more than three years in Europe is a remarkable achievement for any club, and it is a record that will take a long time to match. The fact that it ended against Juventus, a club with a long history in European competition, does not make it any easier to accept, but it does put it in context. AZ will now have to start again, and their next home European game will carry a different kind of pressure: the pressure to start a new run.
The wider picture is also encouraging for Juventus. Three wins in the European campaign so far puts them in a strong position, and the form of Kolo Muani gives them a reliable source of goals. Koopmeiners, too, will take confidence from scoring against his former club, and Woltemade's assist showed that the attacking players are beginning to understand each other's movements. If Juventus can keep that connection going, they will be a difficult team to play against in the remaining matches.
There are still questions to answer. Juventus will want to be more comfortable in games like this, to avoid the late nerves that followed Meerdink's goal, and to turn two-goal leads into more convincing wins. But on a night when they travelled to a ground where no visiting team in Europe had won for more than three years, they did what was needed. They scored early, they scored again before half-time, and they left Alkmaar with all three points. That, in the end, is what away wins in Europe are about.
Source: LiveScore / Football-Italia — UEL | AZ Alkmaar 1-2 Juventus: Special K success in Alkmaar — https://www.livescore.com/en/news/football/europa-league/uel-az-alkmaar-1-2-juventus-special-k-success-in-alkmaar-football-italia/
