Anderlecht vs AZ Alkmaar facts

A long-awaited return to a major European semi-final is the prize for Anderlecht and AZ Alkmaar as the teams from Belgium and the Netherlands, who both claimed eye-catching round of 16 victories, go head to head in the last eight of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Anderlecht secured springtime European football for the first time in six years by taking the runners-up spot in Group B, albeit with a ten-point deficit on runaway winners West Ham United, and they were also hard-pressed to win their play-off against Ludogorets, taking the tie 3-0 on penalties (0-1 a, 2-1 h), before causing a major upset in the round of 16 when they knocked out Villarreal, a 73rd-minute Islam Slimani strike winning the second leg 1-0 in Spain after a 1-1 draw in Brussels.

AZ won their UEFA Europa Conference League group for the second successive season – the only club to do so – and with one point more than in 2021/22 as they recorded five victories in six matches in Group E to qualify directly for the round of 16. There they made impressive further progress at the expense of Lazio, coming from behind to win both legs 2-1, the first in Rome, with Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis on target in each game.

Previous meetings

The clubs have been paired once previously in UEFA competition, AZ winning both legs 1-0 in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League round of 32 en route to the quarter-finals. Adam Maher struck the winner in Alkmaar before Maarten Martens did likewise in Brussels, sending Gertjan Verbeek’s side through at the expense of Ariël Jacobs's Anderlecht.

Anderlecht's record against Dutch clubs in UEFA competition is W8 D2 L6. In Brussels it is W4 D2 L2, though there have been no victories in the last four matches there, the most recent a 3-3 draw against Vitesse in the first leg of last season's UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying play-off – a tie they lost 5-4 on aggregate.

The Belgian club's most memorable victory against Dutch opposition came in the semi-finals of their 1977/78 European Cup Winners' Cup triumph, when they did the double over FC Twente, winning 1-0 in Enschede and 2-0 in Brussels. Anderlecht's record in two-legged ties against Dutch teams is W3 D3, the defeats coming in the last three.

AZ's record against Belgian clubs is W4 D3 L1, the sole defeat proving inconsequential as it came in the second leg of a 1980/81 UEFA Cup quarter-final against Lokeren in which they prevailed on aggregate (2-0 h, 0-1 a). They have won all three previous two-legged ties against Belgian opposition, the most recent against Antwerp in the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League qualifying play-offs, when they won the second away leg 4-1 after extra time in Brussels' King Baudouin Stadium following a 1-1 draw in their temporary home of Enschede. AZ have therefore won on both previous visits to the Belgian capital.

Form guide

Anderlecht

Anderlecht finished third in Belgium's First Division A, ten points behind title winners Club Brugge, in 2021/22 – a campaign in which they returned to Europe after a two-season absence but could go no further than the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying play-offs after losing that tie to Vitesse.

A penalty shoot-out victory spared Belgium's record champions a similar fate this term as, having comfortably overcome Paide Linnameeskond, they belatedly came through their qualifying play-off against Young Boys on spot kicks. Anderlecht therefore went through to their first European group stage since the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League, securing second place on Matchday 6 by completing the double over Silkeborg (1-0 h, 2-0 a) after two draws against FCSB (0-0 a, 2-2 h) and back-to-back defeats by West Ham (0-1 h, 1-2 a). Then came further shoot-out success against Ludogorets before the shock win against last season's UEFA Champions League semi-finalists Villarreal.

This is Anderlecht's 17th appearance in a major UEFA competition quarter-final. Their record at this stage is W8 L8 with defeats in the last three ties, the most recent after extra time against eventual winners Manchester United in the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League (1-1 h, 1-2 a). That was the club's first last-eight engagement for 20 years, and they have not won a tie at this stage since the 1989/90 European Cup Winners' Cup when they defeated Austrian side Admira Wacker (2-0 h, 1-1 a).

Anderlecht's nine home matches in the UEFA Europa Conference League have yielded four wins, three draws and two defeats. Since going down at home to AZ in 2011/12 they have lost only one of their eight springtime European matches in Brussels (W4 D3) – 0-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg of the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League round of 16 (1-4 agg).

AZ

AZ finished fifth in the Dutch Eredivisie last season, 22 points adrift of champions Ajax. They also featured as one of three clubs from the Netherlands in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage, topping their section unbeaten ahead of Randers, Jablonec and CFR Cluj before losing after extra time to Bodø/Glimt in the round of 16 (1-2 a, 2-2 h).

The Alkmaar side, led since December 2020 by Pascal Jansen in his first head coach role, negotiated three qualifying rounds this season, comprehensively beating Tuzla City, Dundee United and Gil Vicente to become one of only seven teams appearing in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage for the second straight season. They then became the only side to top their group twice, doing the double over Dnipro-1 (1-0 a, 2-1) and Vaduz (4-1 h, 2-1 a), while trading home wins with Apollon Limassol (3-2 h, 0-1 a). Then came the two wins against Lazio that put AZ into their sixth major European quarter-final.

AZ won their first two European quarter-finals, starting the ball rolling with that success against Lokeren in 1980/81, but have lost the last three, most recently bowing out to Benfica in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League (0-1 h, 0-2 a). Their last quarter-final success was against Villarreal in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup (2-1 a, 1-1 h).

The Matchday 4 defeat by Apollon in Cyprus ended AZ's four-match unbeaten run in European away fixtures (W2 D2). The Dutch club's record away from home in the UEFA Europa Conference League, qualifiers included, is now W6 D2 L3, with five wins and two defeats in 2022/23.

Links and trivia 

The lone Dutchman in Anderlecht's squad is 20-year-old ex-NAC Breda goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, who saved all three penalties in the knockout play-off shoot-out success against Ludogorets and has started all four of the club's UEFA Europa Conference League knockout phase encounters. He was recently called up to the senior Netherlands squad.

Anderlecht defender Jan Vertonghen started his career in the Netherlands with Ajax, playing 220 matches and scoring 28 goals for the Amsterdam club from 2007 to 2012, during which he won two Eredivisie titles and two domestic cups. He also had a spell on loan at RKC Waalwijk in 2016/17.

Two other Anderlecht players had loan spells with Dutch clubs in 2019/20 – Hannes Delcroix at RKC and Anders Dreyer at Heerenveen.

AZ's squad contains Belgian international defender Zinho Vanheusden, who is on loan to the club from Inter Milan. He started his career in his homeland with Standard Liège, scoring four goals in 76 appearances for the club in all competitions from 2018 to 2021.

AZ goalkeeper Mathew Ryan played in Belgium for Club Brugge from 2013 to 2015, winning the Belgian Cup in his second season, and also had a spell on loan at Genk in 2017.

AZ skipper Jordy Clasie is also an ex-Club Brugge player, having won the 2017/18 Belgian league title while on loan there from Southampton.

In terms of European successes, Anderlecht are the most decorated club in the 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-finals, having won the 1975/76 and 1977/78 European Cup Winners' Cups, the 1982/83 UEFA Cup and two UEFA Super Cups (1976, 1978). Fiorentina and West Ham are the only other two European trophy winners in the field, both clubs having lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup once in the 1960s.

AZ are one of three clubs, along with Basel and Gent, who were eliminated in last season's UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16 but have made it through to the quarter-finals this term. None of the 2021/22 quarter-finalists are involved again this season.

AZ are one of three UEFA Europa Conference League group winners to have reached the last eight, together with Nice and West Ham.

Belgium is the only country with more than one club in the UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-finals, Gent featuring alongside Anderlecht.

Anderlecht were held 0-0 at home by Westerlo in Belgium's First Division A on Sunday, the draw ending a run of four successive wins in all competitions for the Brussels club, who have nevertheless lost just one of their last ten matches (W5 D4).

Since beating Lazio at home on 16 March AZ have picked up just one point in three Eredivisie outings, losing 0-1 at home to Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday.

The winners of this tie will face Gent or West Ham in the semi-final.