AZ Alkmaar vs Galatasaray

AFAS Stadion sets the stage for the first leg of an exciting Europa League knockout playoff tie between AZ Alkmaar and Galatasaray.

Despite ending their decent league-phase campaign on a sorrowful note, losing 4-3 to Ferencvaros, AZ Alkmaar will make their first knockout appearance in a major European competition since 2019/20. Moreover, the hosts should take the field in a buoyant mood after following up on that defeat with three consecutive domestic wins via a two-goal margin to build momentum ahead of this fixture. Further optimism stems from AZ’s 3-1 victory against Galatasaray’s bitter rivals Fenerbahce at the AFAS Stadion earlier this month to preserve their unbeaten home record against Turkish opposition (W3, D2). That makes for good reading as Maarten Martens’ charges bid to uphold their sterling run of 16 consecutive Europa League home outings without losing, qualifying included (W8, D8). 

In the meantime, Galatasaray suffered the tournament’s second-lowest number of defeats during the league phase (W3, D4, L1), but that wasn’t enough for automatic last-16 qualification. The visitors would be naive to take anything for granted, knowing their solitary loss on the main stage came at the hands of AZ’s fellow domestic rivals Ajax last time out! Okan Buruk’s side fired on all cylinders during the league phase, netting more goals (19) than any other team. Moreover, they’ve bagged five in two completed matches since the end of the opening stage (W2) to set themselves up nicely for this meeting. However, the Turkish giants have stuttered on the road lately, winning none of their last seven away European matches (D5, L2).