AZ Alkmaar vs FC Astana Predictions

AZ lost 4-2 at home to Heerenveen at the weekend and will be looking for a response from their players this Thursday against Astana. The visitors arrive on the back of a 3-1 home win against Kairat but have been beaten in their first two Europa League group games this season.

All of the stats suggest that we will see both teams score in Thursday’s clash and we’ve backed AZ to run out 3-1 winners in the end.

These two clubs lock horns for the very first time in their hiostory this Thursday and the performances of both teams in recent weeks suggest that we are likely to see goals being scored at both ends of the pitch, as both teams scored in each of AZ’s last two matches as well as in five of Astana’s last six games.

AZ have only failed to score in one of their last six matches and their guests Astana have scored in all of their last six games, so you can start to see why we have backed a 3-1 win for the hosts this Thursday. The hosts have only lost one of their last six matches and have picked up three wins during that period, while Astana have lost two of their last six, which only adds weight to our prediction of a home win on Thursday.

AZ are unbeaten in Group L of the Europa League this season after drawing with both Manchester United and Partizan, while Astana have lost their opening two matches against those very same opponents. AZ have been strong defensively of late, other than the four goals they conceded at the weekend, with four clean sheets in their last six matches but Astana are good going forward but have only managed to keep one clean sheet in their last six attempts.

We’re confident that both teams will score in Thursday’s match and have predicted a final scoreline of 3-1 in favour of AZ. The hosts are the form favourites heading into the match despite not winning any of their last three matches. The visitors aren’t in bad form but have struggled in the Europa League so far and we expect their troubles to continue in Alkmaar this Thursday.