AZ v Athletic background

AZ Alkmaar have been oddly consistent in UEFA Europa League games this season, with Athletic Club coming to the Netherlands in search of a rare away victory in Group L.

Previous meetings
• The teams are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• AZ's nine games against Spanish sides have ended W4 D3 L2 (W2 D2 L0 at home – W2 D1 L2 in Spain). They have won their last two home matches against Spanish opposition 2-1, having drawn the first two 1-1.

• Athletic's only previous encounter with Dutch rivals was a 3-2 aggregate defeat by AFC Ajax in the 1978/79 UEFA Cup first round.

Form guide
• AZ have been consistent this season in Europe in one respect, scoring twice in each of their five fixtures: three wins (2-0, 2-1, 2-0) and two losses (3-2, 3-2). Both the home games ended 2-0.

• Athletic have won just one of their last seven European away matches: W1 D3 L3.

• Losing finalists in 2012, Athletic made it through to the round of 32 in their first two UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, but fell short in their most recent one, 2012/13.

• In seven previous campaigns in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage, AZ have advanced to the knockout stage five times, most recently in 2013/14 when they got as far as the last eight.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Bilbao to Alkmaar is about 1,200km.

The coaches
• AZ boss since 2014, John van den Brom spent the majority of his playing days as a midfielder at Vitesse. Capped twice, he went on to coach Ajax's youth team, ADO Den Haag and Vitesse before heading to RSC Anderlecht and lifting the Belgian title in 2012/13.

• Ernesto Valverde took charge of Athletic for a second time in 2013. As a player, he had enjoyed the most stable period of his career in Bilbao, and he promptly returned to the club after retiring, including as head coach from 2003–05. Subsequently, he landed three Greek titles with Olympiacos FC and coached both Villarreal CF and Valencia FC.