In the grand scheme of things this game doesn’t have huge relevance as both teams have secured qualification. A win for AZ will win them the group but a draw or United win will see the group placings stay as they were with United topping Group L. With the likes of Inter, Salzburg and last year’s Champions League semi-finalists Ajax dropping into the Europa League, neither team should be resting their squad to avoid a second-place finish and a potentially tough match up.
Man United have really turned a corner of late with back to back 2-1 wins, firstly at home to Spurs and magnificently, away in the Manchester derby. Marcus Rashford has been a driving force in what seems to be a progressing United team, he’s scored 13 in his last 14 games for club and country and threatens every single game since being moved onto the left side, where he’s most deadly.
In this year’s group United have scored an average of 1.2 goals a game and 0.4 conceded on average too which conflicts with their last 10 results. In the last 10 games they’ve had 9 finish with over 2.5 goals, 8 of which both teams have scored in. AZ have also had 9 out of the last 10 games end with over 2.5 goals but in only 2 of them both teams have scored, partially because of how brilliant they’ve been.
AZ Alkmaar have won 8 of their last 9 games with clean sheets in each of them, the only goals they’ve conceded have been in the draw against Partizan in the previous EL game, otherwise they’ve been rock solid. In their last 3 EL games they’ve had a total of 66 shots and scored 13 of them, they’re clearly going to be a threat to the United backline that struggles with clean sheets.
Myron Boadu is AZ’s top goal scorer in the Europa league this season and the promising 18 year old has scored 16 goals in all competitions, unfortunately he’s suspended tonight which leaves the offensive reins with Oussama Idrissi who’s scored 3 in this season’s competition and also scored 3 in his last 4 appearances. The goalscoring ability seems to be embedded in Arne Slot’s team and with United’s current offensive prowess and lack of clean sheets, tonight looks like a goal fest.
Marcus Rashford is the leading man for tonight, his world class ability should be way too much for AZ, he looks bound to score and so do AZ. For the evening’s selection there’s exceptional value.
Rashford to score and both teams to score is 15/8 at the time of writing which simply must be snapped up.
samyets 