National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Excelsior or AZ that keep their silverware dream alive.
This stadium has artifical turf, which is not AZ's normal surface at their own football stadium. When appearing on artifical turf AZ have performed like this: Played twelve matches with the outcome 5 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats with the goal stats 21-18 (scored/conceded).
It's no vacation for neither Excelsior nor AZ 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.
Excelsior form and stats
Excelsior have reached this KNVB Beker stage through battling and winning against MVV Maastricht. Last season their KNVB Beker adventure ended in the 2nd round.Excelsior have collected 12 points from their Eredivisie home games so far after 4-0-3.
The Excelsior fans enjoyed the previous fixture, watching their team host FC Groningen and win 1-0. Defender Yaakoubi got the top score of the team in the match with a rating of 8.0/10. Yaakoubi scored one goal and won 5 of 12 duels.
Heartbreak before that as Excelsior lost 1-5 at Feyenoord's place.There will be little rest for Excelsior after this match as they are travelling to Sparta Rotterdam for a Eredivisie game in only three days.
Excelsior has scored 9 league goals at home this season, in 7 matches. Defensively it’s touch-and-go for the home team as 11 goals have been conceded.
AZ form and stats
AZ's mission in KNVB Beker last season failed in the semi-finals.The away team have been very comfortable on their travels so far, racking up 6 wins, 0 draws and only 2 losses in the Eredivisie.
AZ delivered a 1-1 draw playing at home against Vitesse in their previous match. Attacker Pavlidis got a player rating of 7.84 in the game. "Man of the match" Pavlidis scored one goal and hit three key passes.
Preceding that game was the away Eredivisie victory against PSV with the score of 1-0.There might be some complaints about the fixture list from the AZ manager Jansen as the team has another away game coming up in only three days, this time against SC Heerenveen.
AZ have conceded 9 goals in these away matches.
Head 2 Head
Last ten meetings involving these squads: Excelsior won four, AZ were winners in three and we saw three draws. seven games with more than 2,5 goals, three matches with less than 2,5 goals.
Top Goalscorers
  J. Odgaard 6 goals |  V. Pavlidis 4 goals |  D. de Wit 3 goals |
Excelsior missing players
AZ missing players
| Excelsior | AZ | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 10 | Played | P | 14 | 25 | ||
| 9 | 6 | Won | W | 11 | 18 | ||
| 4 | 1 | Drew | D | 0 | 3 | ||
| 12 | 3 | Lost | L | 3 | 4 | ||
| 38 | 18 | Scored | S | 25 | 53 | ||
| 53 | 15 | Conceded | C | 13 | 25 | ||
| 100% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | ||
| 80% | 70% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 64% | 80% | ||
| 60% | 60% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 64% | 68% | ||
| 48% | 40% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 29% | 36% | ||
| 28% | 30% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 14% | 20% | ||
| 68% | 70% | BTTS | BTTS | 57% | 68% | ||
| 12% | 10% | Clean Sheets | C S | 36% | 28% | ||
| 20% | 20% | Failed to Score | F T | 7% | 4% | ||
| 3.8 | 4.2 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 3.7 | 4.4 | ||
| 6.2 | 6.3 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.6 | 4.4 | ||
| 1.2 | 0.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.4 | 1.5 | ||
| 1 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 1 | ||
| 10.6 | 12.3 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 13.1 | 13.7 | ||
| 4.6 | 5.2 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 5.3 | 6 | ||
| 35% | 35% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 34% | 36% | ||
| 16.4 | 14.8 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 10.6 | 9.9 | ||
| 7.3 | 5.9 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 3.5 | 3.3 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Feyenoord | 15 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 12 | 22 | 34 |
| 2 | Ajax | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 45 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 11 | 27 | 31 |
| 3 | PSV | 15 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 42 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 13 | 22 | 31 |
| 4 | FC Twente | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 26 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 30 |
| 5 | AZ | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 26 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 30 |
| 6 | Sparta Rotterdam | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 25 | 16 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25 |
| 7 | FC Utrecht | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 24 | 22 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 25 |
| 8 | SC Heerenveen | 15 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 24 |
| 9 | NEC | 15 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 20 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 18 |
| 10 | Go Ahead Eagles | 15 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 23 | 24 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 10 | -1 | 18 |
| 11 | RKC Waalwijk | 15 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 25 | 28 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 15 | -3 | 18 |
| 12 | Excelsior | 15 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 17 | 37 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 26 | -20 | 16 |
| 13 | Fortuna Sittard | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 18 | 27 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 13 | -9 | 15 |
| 14 | Vitesse | 15 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 31 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 12 | -13 | 14 |
| 15 | FC Groningen | 15 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 30 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 15 | -13 | 12 |
| 16 | FC Emmen | 15 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 29 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 19 | -16 | 11 |
| 17 | FC Volendam | 15 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 39 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 19 | -23 | 9 |
| 18 | SC Cambuur | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 25 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 13 | -16 | 8 |
