AZ Alkmaar will have one advantage over Tottenham Hotspur coming into the Europa League Round of 16 second leg tomorrow, with the club having a big request being granted ahead of their trip to London.
Spurs were thoroughly outplayed in the first leg by AZ but the Lilywhites will take heart from the fact that they are just 1-0 down, with the tie being very much open.
Ange Postecoglou’s men have an opportunity to turn around the tie in front of their home fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow, with the North London club desperate to seal progression to the quarterfinal as their season hangs by a thread.
The Dutch side will have an advantage over the Premier League outfit coming into the game as they seek to cause a major upset by knocking Spurs out of the Europa League.
Alkmaar have fixture moved ahead of Tottenham clash
Football.London revealed that AZ were originally down in the calendar to host RKC Waalwijk on Sunday but the game was moved to Tuesday, April 1 to allow the Dutch outfit more time to prepare for the Tottenham match.
That means that the Eredivisie outfit have not played since the first leg and will come into the game in North London well-rested and refreshed.
In stark contrast, Spurs were involved in an extremely intense Premier League contest on Sunday as they fought their way back from two goals down to level against Bournemouth.
Fatigue cannot be used as an excuse by Spurs against Alkmaar
It was hard not to sympathize with Postecoglou earlier this season when he was speaking about the impact of fatigue on his players, given the small squad he was working with at the time.
However, a number of key players have returned to action over recent weeks and the Australian has been able to rotate his squad in the last few games.
Tottenham thus have no excuses not to at least match Alkmaar’s intensity and to take the game to the Dutch side right from kick-off.
READ MORE: Which Tottenham players trained ahead of AZ Alkmaar – Defender absent from session