AZ Alkmaar travel to Turkey on Thursday for the second leg of their Europa League third round qualifier with Istanbul Basaksehir.
- Follow Football-Oranje on Twitter
Last week in Alkmaar, AZ comfortably beat the Turkish side 2-0 thanks to goals from Jop van der Linden and Vincent Janssen, but they will be disappointed that they couldn’t add even more goals, especially after Basaksehir had goalkeeper Volcan Babacan sent off in the first half.
Coach John van den Brom was quick to stress in his press conference that AZ cannot be complacent in Istanbul, “It’s definitely not done yet, so we will just play our own game. That means we hopefully – i assume anyway- will be given opportunities.”
“Last week we had the advantage that we came up against ten men. The first twenty minutes was a match and we saw that Istanbul has a good team. We also expect to see that tomorrow.”
AZ will be without striker Aron Johannsson who left for Werder Bremen this week, while new signings Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Rajko Brezancic are not yet in the squad. For Basaksehir, goalkeeper Babacan will be suspended, with Ceylan likely to take his place.
Possible AZ line-up: Rochet, Johansson, Haps, Van der Linden, Gouweleeuw, Ortiz, Henriksen, Van Overeem, Haye, Dos Santos, Janssen
Possible Basaksehir line-up: Ceylan, Ayhan, Ucar, Tekdemir, Oztorun, Cansev, Mossoro, Madureira, Visca, Badji, Cikalleshi
AZ Alkmaar put themselves in a good position last week, but Basaksehir have the quality to come back into the tie in Istanbul. It will be crucial for Van den Brom’s side to score an early away goal to kill the tie, and with Janssen in good form up front, they should have enough to reach the next round.
Prediction: Basaksehir 2-1 AZ
Follow
Follow @Footballoranje_ on Twitter
