A place in the Europa Conference League final is up for the taking as West Ham United and AZ Alkmaar go head-to-head at the London Stadium in the first leg of their semi-final tie.
West Ham’s fifth-ever foray into the semi-finals of major European competition and second in succession following last year’s Europa League elimination to Eintracht Frankfurt comes in a perfect moment. After overseeing a first Premier League win over his former club Manchester United in over a decade, West Ham boss David Moyes will take the field in a buoyant mood, especially with his side extending their lead on the Premier League drop zone to seven points. The ‘Hammers’ arrested an abysmal three-match losing streak in the build-up to this fixture, but they can draw further confidence from their stellar Europa Conference League campaign. Barring a 1-1 first-leg draw in their quarter-final tie against Gent, they’ve won all remaining European fixtures this term, including all six at home by an aggregate score of 17-4, qualifiers included.
In the meantime, after a near-perfect Europa Conference League group-stage campaign (W5, L1), AZ Alkmaar have won three of their four knockout legs in 2023 (L1), netting precisely twice in each victory. Since a 2-0 loss to Anderlecht in the first leg of their quarter-final tie, Pascal Jansen’s men have gone unbeaten in four straight competitive outings (W3, D1), including a scoreless draw at fierce Eredivisie rivals Ajax at the weekend. However, that result only deepened AZ’s away crisis, as they’ve now failed to win three times on their last four travels in all competitions (D1, L2), drawing a blank twice in this sequence. The upcoming trip to London won’t inspire much confidence either, with AZ managing just two wins in their previous 14 European encounters against English sides (D5, L7).
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