Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar Prediction, Tips and Odds | Europa League

Sunderland host AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, and the fixture means more to this club than the Europa League table position it will eventually produce.

It is the first competitive European match played at the stadium in 53 years, the reward for a seventh-placed Premier League finish that Regis Le Bris built from a squad promoted only 12 months earlier.

Sunderland now try to fit a continental campaign around Saturday's defeat to Arsenal and a trip to Manchester City four days after this one, and fans hunting for a new bookmaker before kick-off can compare the best new UK gambling websites we track.

AZ have won five and drawn one of their six Eredivisie matches this season, form that has kept them level on points with leaders PSV Eindhoven.

Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar form guide

Sunderland sit 14th in the Premier League with four points from four matches, but the league table means little this early and the bigger picture is healthier than that position suggests.

Le Bris took four points from Fulham and Brentford after the opening defeat at Ipswich Town, then saw his side reduced to 10 men against Arsenal on Saturday when Reinildo was dismissed for a second yellow card, a moment that cost Sunderland their discipline in a game they were already losing.

Wednesday's opponents have never played Sunderland before, but the occasion carries its own weight regardless, since this is the club's first home game in continental Europe since the 1973-74 European Cup Winners' Cup.

That historic thread runs through everything written about this fixture on Wearside this week, and supporters who fancy a flutter on the wider competition can browse the best football gambling sites we rank before kick-off.

Sunderland's own defensive numbers hold up under scrutiny too, with just five goals conceded across their last four Premier League matches despite the manner of Saturday's defeat.

AZ have not lost a match all season, and their four-goal thrashing of PSV in the Dutch Super Cup back in August set the tone for everything that has followed.

Leeroy Echteld only took charge in January, having stepped up from the club's academy setup, and he now has AZ chasing a first Eredivisie title challenge in years while also adjusting to a European workload his side qualified for by winning the KNVB Cup rather than through their league position.

That cup run finished with a 5-1 demolition of NEC Nijmegen in the final, and it means AZ arrive at the Stadium of Light as cup winners even though they finished only seventh in the Eredivisie table last season.

Troy Parrott's summer move to Real Betis left a gap up front, but Mexx Meerdink and Ro-Zangelo Daal have shared the goals since, with Daal's tally of four in the league the best of anyone at the club this term.

AZ's away form in Europe has never really been tested against Premier League opposition before, and a raucous full house on Wearside for a club starved of continental nights since the 1970s will be unlike anything most of Echteld's squad have experienced.

Team news: Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar

Sunderland

Habib Diarra remains sidelined with the hamstring injury that has already kept him out of the Arsenal and Man City weeks either side of this one, and Le Bris has said the midfielder is still in the middle of his recovery.

Romaine Mundle's absence runs deeper into the season, with the winger's knee injury not expected to clear until after the turn of the year, a blow given how well he had looked in pre-season.

Reinildo's sending off against Arsenal only carries a domestic ban, since a Premier League red card does not extend into UEFA competition, so the left-back is available to face AZ even though he will sit out the trip to Man City next.

Le Bris made 11 changes for the EFL Cup win over Hull City last week, which means his strongest available group arrives for AZ with fresher legs than the fixture list alone would suggest.

The manager still has a delicate balancing act ahead, though, with Man City waiting four days after this one and a European campaign that will only get busier from here.

AZ Alkmaar

Losing Daal to injury would sting more than most absences, given he is the club's leading league scorer this season and scored against Heerenveen earlier this month.

Mateo Chavez picked up his knock in the same Willem II draw, with Mees de Wit tipped to come in at left-back if the regular starter cannot be risked.

Stije Resink's knee injury will keep him out for months yet, while Denso Kasius is another fitness doubt Echteld will assess before naming his side.

None of that has dented AZ's momentum domestically, and captain Jordy Clasie was not among those rested for the Willem II game despite the midweek trip to England already on the horizon.

Predicted lineups for Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar

Sunderland predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Roefs; Mukiele, Ballard, Danso, Reinildo; Xhaka, Sadiki; Meunier, Le Fee, Angulo; Brobbey.

AZ Alkmaar predicted XI (4-2-3-1): De Busser; Dijkstra, Goes, Schouten, de Wit; Clasie, Koopmeiners; Stengs, Kwakman, Oufkir; Meerdink.

Head-to-head: Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar

Sunderland and AZ will meet for the first time on Wednesday, so there is no shared history to draw tips or predictions from here.

Sunderland's own European story is short but rich, beginning and ending in the 1973-74 European Cup Winners' Cup after that famous FA Cup win over Leeds United, a run that saw them beat Vasas Budapest before losing narrowly to Sporting CP in the second round.

AZ have gone considerably further in Europe than that, reaching the 1981 UEFA Cup final only to lose 5-4 on aggregate to an Ipswich side that remains the only English club to have beaten them in a European final.

Both clubs therefore carry a version of the same story into Wednesday, a big European night built on a rare and cherished piece of continental history rather than a long modern pedigree.

That lack of a shared past just adds to the sense that this result will set an early tone for how each side's league phase campaign unfolds from here.

Sunderland vs AZ Alkmaar prediction and betting tips

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