AZ breaks painful tradition: 'Challenge to perform in league and Europa League'

AZ won 4-3 at Groningen on Sunday, breaking a poor run of results in league matches following European fixtures.

AZ has struggled with fixture congestion this season, losing eight of thirteen league matches played on Sundays following Thursday Europa League games since November. Sunday's 4-3 victory over FC Groningen marked only the fourth time in that period the club secured all three points, suggesting a potential turning point.

Manager Leeroy Echteld acknowledged the challenge of balancing domestic and European competition with a young squad. "It's a challenge to perform in both the league and Europa League with this young group," he said. "We think a lot about how to do that best. Fortunately we haven't had an injury crisis because we have many players available. We work with many rotations."

Despite recent losses, Echteld is encouraged by the team's underlying data. "Our data has never been as good as in recent weeks," the manager explained. "It shows aggression is up, we're attacking space well with our runs, and Expected Goals values are good. The defensive data models also look good. It's just a matter of continuing what we're doing. We're very close to how we want to play."