Tottenham vs AZ Alkmaar

Tottenham Hotspur must win their Europa League matchup against AZ Alkmaar at the Tottenham Stadium because their current first-leg score leaves them with little chance of winning additional trophies this season.

A Lucas Bergvall mistake through an own goal serves as the only deficit between Tottenham and AZ Alkmaar after their Netherlands matchup last Thursday as both teams battle for quarter-final seats against Ajax and Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Spurs loss during last week has pushed their European away success rate to one victory out of nine matches since 2021 when they defeated Wolfsburger in lockdown at the last-32 stage.

Ange Postecoglou faces his most critical match of the year as manager due to serious threats against his season trophy promise.

Recent years have brought failure in both the FA and EFL Cup competitions so now the Europa League remains Tottenham Hotspur's only route to securing championship victory after almost two decades.

The team finished the league phase fourth and claimed home ground victories in ten matches out of twelve games including their 1-0 win against AZ Alkmaar which has calmed down most fans despite their present standings.

A strong defensive performance looks like the priming factor since the hosts have netted in their last 29 Europa League home matches setting a new competition record yet they battle to prevent goals against their opponents.

Bournemouth achieved two goals during their Sunday match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium even though Tottenham barely escaped conceding more than two before their late surge.

Given that they have won four of their past five home games against Dutch teams, they are the favorites and will now primarily concentrate on Europe after that point dropped them to 13th place, 10 points outside the top eight.

The sole exception to that streak was when Spurs went to the final after the incredible late comeback in Amsterdam, but Ajax triumphed 1-0 here in the 2019 Champions League semi-finals.

Prior to this first leg, AZ had very little to lose, yet they defeated Spurs a week earlier to snap a 10-game losing streak against English teams.

They have lost all nine of their prior European excursions to England, though, which makes them the biggest outsiders in the history of European football. This is the greatest losing streak any team has ever experienced.

Maarten Martens's team is concerned about their road performance in general since AZ has lost their past ten away games on the continent, and if they lose this one again, they would tie their worst-ever losing run.

To give them as much time as possible to get ready for this match, the visitors were fortunate enough to have their league match against Waalwijk postponed.