The France will be dressed in sky blue and burgundy on Thursday in reference to the colours of the West Ham club. For good reason, the Hammers will host AZ Alkmaar at the London Stadium for the semi-final first leg of the Conference Europa League. David Moyes' men can save French football from a disaster on Thursday.
To discover
- Europa League schedule and results
- Schedule and results Europa League Conference
What impact on French football and the years to come?
After a poor French European campaign, the Dutch have moved closer than ever to fifth place in the UEFA coefficient (UEFA index) held so far by the France. The stakes are high since the new format of the Champions League for the 2024/2025 season will have 36 teams instead of 32. This major change will allow the fifth country in the UEFA index to send four clubs (including one in the preliminary round) to attack this new formula of the cup with big ears. Conversely, the sixth country in the ranking will have only three clubs in C1 (including one in the preliminary round). Beyond the Champions League, it is also the future of French clubs in the other two European cups that could be upset. If France lose fifth place at the end of the season, no Ligue 1 club (apart from the winner of the France Cup) will directly advance to the group stages of the Europa League and the Conference Europa League. The promise to play perilous play-offs that do not always succeed to the clubs of the hexagon.
How can AZ Alkmaar make the France plunge?
At the start of the season, France were 10.781 points ahead of the Netherlands. Today, the situation has changed dramatically with a small margin of 1.264 points. For the C4 (Conference Europa League) a victory offers two points and a draw one point. In addition, at this stage of the competition, passing a round earns an extra bonus point. The total points won by clubs from the same country during the European season are divided at the end of the season by the number of teams entered in the different European cups. Here too advantage to the Dutch who had five teams involved (Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord, FC Twente, AZ Alkmaar), one less than the France (Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique de Marseille, AS Monaco, Stade Rennais, OGC Nice, FC Nantes).
The ball is now in the Batavian court since Nice, the last French representative, was recently eliminated by the Swiss club FC Bale. The France can thank its Italian neighbor, Roma who heroically took out Feyenoord leader of the Dutch league in the quarters of the Europa League. AZ, the last representative of the Eredivisie, is obliged to win its double confrontation against West Ham and the final against Fiorentina or FC Basel. Even in the event of a final victory, the slightest draw against the Hammers would prevent the Netherlands from reaching 5th place in the UEFA index.
The only threat to French football, what is AZ Alkmaar worth?
Few specialists could have predicted the Dutch club's solid run in the Conference Europa League. Pascal Jansen's team generally plays in 4-3-3. It relies on its Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis, 20 goals this season, including 5 in this C4, its Swedish metronome Jesper Karlsson and its solid and decisive goalkeeper Matthew Ryan. AZ first flew over the play-offs to reach the group stages of the competition with five wins and one defeat and especially 18 goals scored for only two conceded.
The group stages were also a formality, apart from a misstep on the lawn of Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) (1-0), the red and whites won the rest of their matches. Thanks to their first place in Group E (15 points out of 18), they avoided the play-off round pitting the second in each group against the third in the Europa League. It was in the eighths that Europe began to distrust the AZ. One evening in March at the Stadio Olimpico, the den of Lazio favorite of the competition and 2nd in Serie A, AZ wins 1-2 to everyone's surprise. In the return match the following week, they put it back in front of their home crowd at AFAS Stadion (2-1).
Europe is then warned, the Dutch formation is a serious contender for the final victory. The quarter-finals could have stopped the already heroic course of the Dutch club, but their Australian goalkeeper Matthew Ryan decided otherwise by stopping two penalties in the decisive penalty shootout against Anderlecht (4-1). By illustrating their heroic return against Anderlecht and their superiority against Lazio, the Batavian team knows perfectly how to transcend themselves in Europe. The chances of the trophy and the obligation to collect points in the UEFA rankings should galvanize the AZ players even more.
On Thursday, France and the Netherlands could already be fixed on their fate. Let's hope that the French Alphonse Areola and Kurt Zouma, as good patriots, keep their cages and the French ranking inviolate.