AZ Alkmaar vs BK Hacken Predictions

AZ Alkmaar have had a mixed run of results in pre-season and will be hoping that they can put in a good 1st leg performance on Thursday to give them the advantage over their Swedish counterparts. Hacken are already well into their Allsvenskan campaign so sharpness is certainly not going to be a problem for the visitors but their hosts play regularly in a higher quality league and possess more international players.

AZ picked up three wins and suffered three defeats in pre-season, beating the likes of Eendracht Aalst, PAOK, and Club Brugge, and losing to Gent, Telstar, and Oleksandria, but should at least have enough game time under their belts to provide the match sharpness needed to compete in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League. A solitary strike from Friberg in the fifty-ninth minute proved enough for Hacken to defeat Sundsvall at the NP3 Arena on Saturday and the visitors managed to avoid picking up any injuries ahead of Thursday’s 1st leg in the Netherlands.

The form and performances of each of these teams over the last six weeks suggests that over 2.5 goals will be scored on Thursday and that AZ are best placed to win the 1st leg. Over 2.5 goals were scored in four of AZ’s last six and in three of Hacken’s last five matches. AZ have only kept one clean sheet in their last six matches and Hacken have only failed to score in one of their last six games. AZ have won three of their last six matches, all of which have been at home, and that’s why we’re backing the hosts to claim a 3-1 win against Hacken in Thursday’s 1st leg.

Jeremejeff and Paulinho have scored the majority of Hacken’s goals this season and if the pair combine well on Thursday they could cause the AZ defence plenty of problems. Norwegian international Johnsen is likely to lead the line for AZ on Thursday and, with a season under his belt, the striker will be hoping for a much better goals return in the new campaign. We’re confident that over 2.5 goals will be scored in Thursday’s match and have predicted a final scoreline of 3-1 in favour of AZ Alkmaar. The hosts are the favourites for obvious reasons, they play in a higher quality league and have a squad that contains many international players, but we expect Hacken to create chances of their own as they sit fourth in the Allsvenskan table with a +12 goal difference.