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On Thursday, May 18th at 20:00pm, BST, West Ham will travel to the Netherlands for the 2nd leg of the Europa Conference League Semi-finals. As a West Ham fan myself, it’s a huge match after a very successful Europa League Conference campaign and has been the highlight of a very average season. My best football betting tips for the game below.
AZ Looking to End Long European Trophy Wait
AZ Alkmaar host West Ham for the 2nd leg of the Conference League, Semi-Finals. AZ took the lead against West Ham at The London Stadium before The Hammers came back into it in the 2nd half. Scoring two quick goals from Michail Antonio and Said Benhrama.
The club last reached a European Final back in 1981. They faced Ipswich Town but lost the first leg 3-0. The damage had already been done and even a 4-2 home win wasn’t enough, and Ipswich won the 81′ UEFA Cup. This will be Alkmaars chance to make another European Final, for over 40 years.
Pascal Jansen’s side played some solid stuff against West Ham in the first leg, especially in the first half of the match and despite a bit of a goalkeeping error from Alphonse Areola and West Ham not looking up to the task, AZ probably deserved to be leading. However, the second half was a different story and AZ dropped off quite substantially. Once West Ham scored, they looked like they could score 3/4. They’ll wish they could at least grab a third.
Irons Searching for First European Final Since 1976
On the other hand, West Ham is also not used to the latter stages of European football. They won the Intertoto Cup back in 1999. However, it was a shared winners event and whilst there was a tiny little trophy involved, they’ve not been in a major European final since 1976. When they lost to Anderlecht 4-2.
West Ham had a massive chance last season to improve on that stat with a fine run in the Europa League. They beat both Sevilla and Lyon but then went out to Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 on aggregate. It was a huge chance for West Ham to win and they had many chances, especially at home, where they conceded a really early, silly goal.
West Ham, on the whole, has had a really poor season. The Europa Conference League has been the only bright spark in an average season. West Ham has had almost a 100% record in the event with 13 matches played, 12 wins and 1 draw. They’ve scored 32 goals and conceded just 8. With a goal difference of +24. The Europa Conference League has only been around for a couple of seasons now but it would be historic if West Ham went on to win this and I find it unlikely that another team would go all the way with such a solid record.
Head-to-Head Meetings & Team News
There isn’t much in terms of head-to-head stats as they’ve not played each other in a long time. There is just the 1st leg to go on. West Ham won 2-1. In terms of team news, West Ham rested players in the 2-0 defeat to Brentford and will have the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Declan Rice and Benhrama back. Kurt Zouma is also expected to go back into defence over Angelo Ogbonna. Gianluca Scamacca is still out and Antontio could also miss the game. A big loss for West Ham, who would likely bring Ings in
Alkmaar have Bruno Martins Indi missing for the match with a hamstring injury but other than that, they expect to have the likes of Dani de Wit and Jesper Karlsson free from injury, also.
AZ Alkmaar vs West Ham Betting Tips
I feel like West Ham can really use the experience of last season for this match. AZ have a really good home record and have been fantastic in Europe at home, also. Anderlecht were expected to go through after a 2-0 home win but AZ went and won themselves 2-0 and got through on penalties. Before that, they knocked out Lazio and once again won the home tie after an away loss. West Ham will have to play well to go through here.
I think West Ham will score in this match and I think it will be enough to see them through. I anticipate a 1-1 draw here but it will be very important to start the match well and hold AZ. That’s something David Moyes likes doing in most matches. I’m going to take both teams to score in this one but I’ll also have a bet on the draw. A result that would see West Ham into that elusive European Final.
Both Teams To Score 8/11 with Paddy Power Promo Code
Draw 5/2 Betfred Bonus Code
All odds are accurate at the time of writing.
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