Zenit St Petersburg vs AZ Alkmaar Predictions, Betting Tips, & Match Preview

Zenit produced one of the most extraordinary comebacks in the history of UEFA Europa League group stage football to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 win on their travels to Israel to face Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Coach Mircea Lucescu’s certainly made a dramatic entrance in his first continental game in charge of the Russian side and their first Europa League game of the season. Domestically, Zenit have started their campaign just as explosively and remain as one of only two sides in the Russian Premier League unbeaten after eight matches, a streak which has extended their competitive unbeaten run to seventeen consecutive matches (W12 D5).

AZ, who finished fourth in the Eredivisie last season, began their UEFA Europa League campaign in the third qualifying round. Their progress through to the group stages has been pretty clear cut with a 3-1 aggregate win over Greek side PAS Giannina, followed by a 3-0 aggregate win against Serbian Vojvodina in the playoff round. AZ are also in decent form, coming into this off the back of a nine match unbeaten run (W6 D3) and their only defeat in their last sixteen competitive matches was a 1-0 defeat away to Dutch reigning champions PSV – a difficult match for any side. AZ have made some decent Europa League runs in recent history, qualifying for the quarterfinals in 2007, 2012 and 2014, but their opening 1-1 draw at home to Dundalk was somewhat foreshadowing for a match they were expected to win.

Zenit St Petersburg come into this as strong favourites for the bookies at 4/9 and we’re very much inclined to agree with them for the following reasons: Zenit have lost just one Europa League home match since 2002 (W25 D9 L1), recording a 71% win rate on their own turf, and are in top current form under their new manager. AZ, meanwhile, have lost three of their last six Europa League away matches against sides that were weaker than Zenit. While the direction of this match seems pretty clear cut, we feel there are much better value bets to be found in other markets. AZ never fail to produce entertaining European football on the road and “over 2.5 goals and both teams to score” has landed in six of AZ’s last seven Europa League away matches. Meanwhile, Zenit are averaging roughly three goals per game at home over their last four matches and show no signs of slowing down, which adds further signs for that bet to come in again here.

As such, both teams to score and over 2.5 goals at 13/10 and Zenit to win 3-1 at 11/1 are our choice bets for this match.