The Hague, Jan 18 (IANS): 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, reports Xinhua.

AZ are now ranked fourth in the Eredivisie, six points behind No. 2 Feyenoord and four behind No. 3 FC Twente. The top two qualify directly for next season's Champions League group stage.

On Tuesday evening, AZ escaped an embarrassing early exit in the Dutch Cup after winning on penalties in Alkmaar against amateur third division side Quick Boys.

Jansen replaced current Feyenoord coach Arne Slot as AZ coach in December 2020. Under Jansen, AZ finished third (2021), fifth (2022) and fourth (2023) in the Eredivisie. In the 2022-2023 season, AZ reached the semifinals of the UEFA Conference League, but this season saw AZ failing to survive the group stage of the Conference League.