Last saturday

UEFA Conference League: Dutch soccer club AZ Alkmaar fired coach Pascal Jansen with immediate effect on Wednesday, a day after a narrow escape in the Dutch Cup against amateur club Quick Boys.

Maarten Martens, the assistant coach in Alkmaar, succeeds Jansen until the end of the season. The 39-year-old Belgian, who won the national championship with AZ as a player in 2009, coached the second team of AZ for the past two seasons.

The change came as no surprise after AZ's disappointing results by the end of 2023 and a difficult start of the new year. Last Saturday, AZ started the second half of the Eredivisie season with a 2-1 loss to FC Twente.