AZ look to press Liberec advantage

AZ Alkmaar will look to ensure coach Dick Advocaat has reason to remember his 100th UEFA club competition game as a coach fondly as FC Slovan Liberec return to Alkmaar.

Previous meetings
• Nick Viergiver pounced following a goalkeeping mistake in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie to give AZ a 1-0 lead to take home; it was Liberec's first defeat against Dutch opposition.

• The sides previously faced each other in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage, Louis van Gaal's AZ twice coming from behind to earn a 2-2 draw at home to Vitězslav Lavička's Liberec.

• The teams for that fixture on 29 November 2006 were:
AZ: Sinouh (Boulters 38), Opdam, De Cler, Gudjonsson, Schaars, Arveladze, Martens*, Dembélé (Lens 78), Koevermans (Jenner 59), Steinsson, Mendes.
Liberec: Čech, Zápotočný, Bílek, Koštál, Parks (Pospěch 79), Janů, Šinglár, Frejlach, Papoušek (Dohnálek 89), Pudil, Blažek (Hodúr 89).

*registered to play for the club in this season's competition

Match background
• AZ's four games against Czech sides to date have ended W2 D2 L0 (W1 D1 L0 at home).

• Liberec's six games against Dutch sides have ended: W1 D4 L1 (W0 D3 L0 in the Netherlands).

• AZ came through the group stage unbeaten (W3 D3) and have not lost at home since they went down 2-0 to Atromitos FC in the play-offs (W2 D1).

• AZ have reached the round of 32 for the fifth time since the advent of the UEFA Cup group stage – they have progressed to the next phase on three occasions, beating TSV Alemannia Aachen in 2004/05, Fenerbahçe SK in 2006/07 and RSC Anderlecht in 2011/12.

• Liberec failed to make it through to the round of 32 in their only previous group stage appearance, in 2006/07, but reached the last eight of the 2001/02 UEFA Cup, bowing out with a 4-0 aggregate loss to Borussia Dortmund.

Team facts
• Liberec have committed 142 fouls since the start of the group stage, 23 more than any other side.

• This is Liberec's 14th European game of the season; their longest previous campaign was that ten-match journey to the 2001/02 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

Coach information
• AZ dismissed Gertjan Verbeek ahead of matchday two. He had been in charge since 2010 and led the club to Dutch Cup success last season.

• Dick Advocaat was named AZ coach on 16 October, returning to the club where he spent five months in charge at the end of 2009/10. Twice Netherlands coach, he won the 2007/08 UEFA Cup with FC Zenit, as well as national titles with PSV Eindhoven (1997/98), Rangers FC (1998/99, 1999/2000) and FC Zenit (2007).

• This is Advocaat's 100th UEFA club competition game as a coach.

• Advocaat is one of five coaches in the round of 32 to have led a side to victory in this competition before. FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's Juande Ramos (Sevilla FC, 2006 & 2007), PAOK FC's Huub Stevens, who won it as a player (PSV, 1978) and coach (FC Schalke 04, 1997), FC Shakhtar Donetsk's Mircea Lucescu (Shakhtar, 2009) and SSC Napoli's Rafael Benítez (Valencia CF, 2004 & Chelsea FC, 2013) are the others.

• Hired in June 2011, Jaroslav Šilhavý led Liberec to the Czech championship in his first season at the club. It was his first major title, with the coach having gained experience on the national team staff and by taking charge of SK Kladno, home-town club FC Viktoria Plzeň and Dynamo České Budějovice. As a defender he played a Czech record 465 league games for Plzeň, RH Cheb, SK Slavia Praha, FK Drnovice and FK Viktoria Žižkov.

Shoot-out record
• AZ's only UEFA penalty shoot-out to date ended in a 5-4 loss to FC Barcelona at Camp Nou in the 1977/78 UEFA Cup second round

• Liberec's record in two UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L1:
lost 9-8 (home) v FC Dinamo Bucuresti, 2009/10 UEFA Europa League play-offs
won 4-2 (home) v Ipswich Town FC, 2002/03 UEFA Cup second round

Round of 16
• The winners of this tie will meet FC Anji Makhachkala or KRC Genk in the round of 16, playing the first leg at home.

• AZ have not faced Genk, but will remember Anji with a shudder. Under Dutchman Guus Hiddink, Anji eliminated AZ from last season's UEFA Europa League play-offs. AZ lost 1-0 in Moscow then 5-0 at home: Anji's biggest continental away win and AZ's heaviest European home defeat.

• Liberec have yet to meet either side.