uefa cup football
az alkmaar v everton

Five presents another night of live UEFA Cup football as Everton travel to the Netherlands to take on AZ Alkmaar. Five’s coverage is presented by Colin Murray, with commentary from Dave Woods. Kick off is at 19.45.

Everton face another tough challenge in the UEFA Cup this week as they take on AZ Alkmaar in their last game of the group stages. The Toffees currently sit at the top of Group A, having vanquished Nuremberg of Germany and FC Larissa of Greece. Manager David Moyes will be looking to book his side’s place in the knockout rounds, after enduring mixed fortunes in the Premier League this season.

So far in the Premiership, Everton have racked up 20 points in 13 games to take them up to ninth place. Defender Joleon Lescott is the club’s top scorer in all competitions having notched up five goals. His consistent performances have seen him called into the England squad for the games against Estonia and Russia in October. Everton’s strikers, however, have struggled this term, with Andrew Johnson chalking up only one goal, and Ayegbeni Yakubu, Victor Anichebe and James McFadden contributing four each.

Their opponents this evening are experiencing an equally uneven season. 11 matches in, AZ Alkmaar are also in ninth place in their domestic league, the Eredivisie, having won only four games. In the UEFA Cup, AZ struggled to a 1–1 draw away at Zenit St Petersburg in their first game.

The Dutch side have a good recent track record in Europe, however, having reached the semi finals of the UEFA Cup in 2005, when they lost on away goals to Sporting Libson. Their chairman, Dirk Scheringa, has lofty ambitions for the club – recently stating his desire to make AZ the best club in Holland and to bring trophies back to the DSB stadium. The club’s 17,000-seater ground opened in August 2006 and plans are afoot to increase capacity to 40,000 in three years’ time.

In the meantime, manager Luis van Gaal will be looking to take points off Everton in tonight’s crucial fixture. Van Gaal enjoyed massive success as manager of Ajax in the mid-1990s, with a team including the likes of Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids, and he won two La Liga championships with Barcelona – making him a dangerous opponent for David Moyes.