AZ Alkmaar host Shakhtar Donetsk at AFAS Stadion on Thursday needing one of the biggest comebacks of their recent European history to stay alive in the Uefa Conference League quarter-finals. Shakhtar arrived in the tie with a 3-0 lead after scoring all three goals in the final 18 minutes of the first leg in Krakow last week.
AZ, who need a 3-0 win to force extra time, at least come into the second leg on the back of a 3-0 win over Heerenveen that lifted them to sixth in the Eredivisie table and extended their run of seven successive home success at the AFAS. That result also continued a curious pattern for Maarten Martens' side, with each of their last six matches featuring only one team on the scoresheet and four of AZ's wins in that spell coming with clean sheets.
The Dutch side have reason to believe they can make the night awkward for the visitors. They beat Shakhtar 2-1 in their previous competitive home meeting in 2019-20, and three of AZ's wins in their recent six-match run have come by margins of three goals or more. Even so, history is not on their side: AZ have lost both previous European ties in which they trailed by three goals after the first leg.
Shakhtar, by contrast, have turned first-leg control into progression every time before. They have advanced from all eight previous European ties in which they took a three-goal lead into the second leg, and they have won their last five away matches in the competition while remaining unbeaten across all eight trips they have made in the Uefa Conference League.
There is a small wrinkle for the visitors after Monday's 2-2 draw at LNZ Cherkasy, a result that kept them second in the Ukrainian top-flight table. But their European form away from home has been stubbornly reliable, and Thursday offers them a chance to move a step closer to a first European semi-final since their 2019-20 Europa League defeat to Inter Milan. AZ, meanwhile, are asking for a clean sheet and the sort of three-goal response they have rarely had to produce. What they cannot afford is another slow start like the one that left them chasing shadows in Krakow.
AZ are without Peer Koopmeiners, Jizz Hornkamp and Denso Kasius because of injury.