AZ Alkmaar 2 Newcastle 0 (AZ go through on away goals, 4-4 on aggregate)

Trailing 4-2 from the first leg, the Dutchmen reduced the deficit within 14 minutes when Shota Arveladze fired home from close range, and they were ahead on away goals when Danny Koevermans headed home a second 11 minutes after the restart.

Ex-Rangers hitman Arveladze was handed the simplest of tasks to open the scoring on the night when Koevermans drilled in a cross from the right.

Newcastle strikers Obafemi Martins and Antoine Sibierski were largely feeding off scraps with AZ keeper Boy Waterman a spectator for much of the first half.

He had only one real scare when Parker whipped a shot inches over his bar on 15 minutes, but Sibierski's looping 41st-minute header was his side's first effort on target.

Moussa Dembele fired high over after the restart, but Newcastle could have levelled in the 54th minute when Kieron Dyer beat the offside trap and rounded Waterman, only to see his shot from a tight angle slide agonisingly wide.

Dyer was made to pay within two minutes when Koevermans rose at the near post to head Maarten Martens' cross home.

It might have been even worse seconds later when Koevermans just missed the target with an acrobatic overhead effort.

Steven Taylor hacked a Koevermans shot off the line after the striker had rounded the keeper seconds later, and Paul Huntington headed away Dembele's shot with goalkeeper Shay Given beaten.

Martins could have snatched back the tie with seven minutes remaining after being played in by Dyer, but he shot straight at the advancing Waterman.

Scott Parker thought he had scored, but his late effort was chalked off for a foul in the build up as Newcastle bowed out.

Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder Roeder admitted his side had simply not been good enough at the DSB Stadium, but refused to pronounce their season dead.

"It is too easy to say it is another season of failure for Newcastle," he said.

"That is just too easy. You know the problems we have had. The squad has been decimated for six months by injuries.

"We have got a few back now, but we have had to pick up points during the season with a team that was minus a dozen senior players.

"There are nine games left now and we need to pick up as many points as we can to make sure we finish as high up the Premiership as we can."

AZ Alkmaar coach Louis van Gaal felt that the better side progressed.

"I think the best team went through. We scored two chances but we have had three or four," van Gaal told ITV1.

"Newcastle also had chances but because of the second half in Newcastle we were better, I believe.

"Newcastle are a top team so this match I think is the best match we could have played and I have to give my players a big compliment."