The first of two encounters in the Europa League Play-offs, as the hometeam Celtic will try to edge AZ Alkmaar in their own ballpark.
It's no vacation for neither Celtic nor AZ Alkmaar as both were in action only a few days ago. Expect some tired legs on the pitch and/or possibly some changes to the lineups.
AZ Alkmaar have a very long trip to this away game, as there's more than 900 kilometers in distance to cover. This could prove a challenge, at least for the supporters.
Celtic form and stats
Celtic have reached this Europa League stage through battling and winning against Jablonec. Last season their Europa League adventure ended in the group stage.There’s a good atmosphere here at Celtic Park after three straight home wins.
Celtic's last game was hosting Hearts and winning 3-2.
Previous to that game, a Europa League home match hosting Jablonec in a game that was won 3-0.The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how Celtic have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found two games) they have won zero times, drawn one and lost one.
There's a new fixture coming up fairly quickly for Celtic, as the Premiership home game vs St. Mirren is only three days away.
AZ Alkmaar form and stats
AZ Alkmaar was sent out of Europa League in the group stage last season.0-0-1 is the win-draw-loss statistic for AZ Alkmaar in their Eredivisie matches away.
AZ Alkmaar are travelling again after losing away to RKC Waalwijk in their previous match (0-1). Defender Yukinari Sugawara was the best team player with a rating of 7.91. Sugawara hit three key passes and won 7 of 8 duels.
Before that, Alkmaar secured a home win against Heracles with the score 5-0.Alkmaar are the outsiders in this one, but not by much. Their performance in similar games (being the away team and moderate outsiders) is three wins, zero draws and zero defeats. From a total of three matches.
It's early days yet, but AZ Alkmaar has scored 0 and conceded 1 goals from their travels in the league so far (1 game).
Head 2 Head
Top Goalscorers
  K. Furuhashi 3 goals |  A. Ralston 2 goals |  T. Rogić 1 goals |
Celtic missing players
AZ Alkmaar missing players
| Celtic | AZ Alkmaar | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 12 | Played | P | 10 | 25 | ||
| 12 | 8 | Won | W | 4 | 18 | ||
| 6 | 2 | Drew | D | 2 | 2 | ||
| 7 | 2 | Lost | L | 4 | 5 | ||
| 46 | 31 | Scored | S | 11 | 50 | ||
| 28 | 11 | Conceded | C | 9 | 18 | ||
| 88% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 90% | 96% | ||
| 72% | 75% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 50% | 72% | ||
| 56% | 58% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 30% | 52% | ||
| 32% | 42% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 20% | 28% | ||
| 24% | 33% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 10% | 20% | ||
| 48% | 33% | BTTS | BTTS | 40% | 36% | ||
| 40% | 58% | Clean Sheets | C S | 30% | 48% | ||
| 24% | 8% | Failed to Score | F T | 40% | 20% | ||
| 7.1 | 8.1 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.7 | 5 | ||
| 3.4 | 3.3 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 3.7 | 3.6 | ||
| 1.1 | 0.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.4 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 2 | ||
| 15.5 | 17.7 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 12.6 | 12.5 | ||
| 5.5 | 6.6 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 4.1 | 5.6 | ||
| 33% | 39% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 27% | 35% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Ajax | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| 2 | FC Utrecht | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 3 | Feyenoord | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | PSV | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | FC Groningen | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Fortuna Sittard | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | RKC Waalwijk | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | SC Heerenveen | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 9 | Vitesse | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 10 | FC Twente | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 |
| 11 | SC Cambuur | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 12 | AZ Alkmaar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 13 | Go Ahead Eagles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 14 | PEC Zwolle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 15 | Heracles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
| 16 | Sparta Rotterdam | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
| 17 | Willem II | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 0 |
| 18 | NEC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 |