AZ Alkmaar vs Manchester United Preview

AZ Alkmaar make a return to the Europa League this season and their first game of the campaign shows that they are a team on a mission.  They earned a 2-2 draw in Belgrade against Partizan on MatchDay 1 and this was achieved despite them being reduced to 10 men halfway through the first half.

The home side will now be hoping that they can take advantage of Manchester United’s poor run of form to get their first win and set themselves up nicely for the next round.

Despite scoring 2 goals in a 4 goals thriller last time, Alkmaar is not exactly a team that scores a high number of goals, especially at this stage.  They have scored more than 3 goals in 5 of their last 10 Europa League games.

The home side is in a fine run of form having not lost any of their last 5 games in all competitions and are currently on a run of 3 consecutive wins.

Manchester United continue to struggle this season and come here off the back of a 1-1 draw at home against Arsenal.  Despite spending a record fee on Harry Maguire, the Red Devils have found it hard to shut teams out.

The likes of Marcus Rashford have also struggled to score the goals needed and it doesn’t look like this will be the season that they get back among the top sides in Europe.

Manchester United haven’t won any of their last three games in normal time and this includes a home game against Rochdale.