Aiming to confirm their place in the next round of this season's Europa Conference League, AZ Alkmaar visit the Rheinpark Stadion on Thursday to face off against Vaduz.
The hosts, meanwhile, will be seeking to preserve their already faint chances of securing progress into the knockout phase of Europe's newest club tournament.
Match preview
© Reuters
AZ Alkmaar saw their 100% Conference League record come to a surprising end on September 13 courtesy of a 1-0 defeat to Apollon Limassol at the Tsirion Stadium.
Having gone behind to Valentin Roberge's opener just past the half-hour mark, Pascal Jansen's men constantly peppered their opponents' goal for the remainder of the game but failed to find the breakthrough.
That was the first of three consecutive losses for the Cheeseheads, who have slipped down to fourth place in the Eredivisie table just a few weeks after leading the division.
AZ will now be looking to get themselves back on track against a Vaduz outfit with revenge on the agenda following a 4-1 defeat in the reverse fixture at the AFAS Stadion.
Off the back of two straight defeats on the road, Thursday's visitors set out to rediscover their Midas touch away from home, where they recently won seven matches on the trot.
Vaduz saw their wait for a first Conference League group-stage victory continue having suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Dnipro-1 two Thursdays ago.
Alessandro Mangiarratti's men trailed to Yanis Hamache's 25th-minute opener but managed to hit back through Elmin Rastoder five minutes later, only for Artem Dovbyk to grab a late winner in second-half stoppage time.
However, Stolz von Liechtenstein have won two and drawn one of their subsequent three domestic outings since then and currently sit ninth in the Challenge League table, six points clear of relegation danger.
With clean sheets in their most recent two home games leading up to Thursday's encounter, the home side will be looking to put on another solid defensive display in front of their fans.
- D
- D
- L
- W
- W
- D
Team News
Bruno Martins-Indi remains unavailable for AZ Alkmaar due to a muscle injury, while 23-year-old Zinho Vanheusden misses out through a foot problem.
The away side will also be without the services of Vangelis Pavlidis and Hakon Evjen, who are both yet to fully recuperate from ankle injuries.
Long-term Vaduz absentee Fuad Rahimi is yet to feature this term as the Kosovo international continues his spell out of action with a damaged knee.
Defender Lars Traber is set to sit out a fifth game on the bounce across all competitions since coming off injured in a 2-2 draw against Schaffhausen earlier this month.
Vaduz possible starting lineup:
Buchel; Ulrich, Isik, Xhemajli, Fehr; Pepsi; Cicek, Hasler, Dobras, Djokic; Rastoder
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Verhulst; Chatzidiakos, Beukema, Dekker, Kerkez; Reijnders, De Wit, Clasie; Sugawara, Odgaard, Karlsson
We say: Vaduz 1-4 AZ Alkmaar
AZ boast a vastly superior squad on paper and will fancy themselves to translate that into something more meaningful. We are tipping the away side to ease past the challenge of the hosts without breaking too much sweat.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
