AZ Alkmaar host SC Heerenveen at the AFAS Stadion on Sunday afternoon, aiming to create some breathing space between themselves and the visitors, who sit just one place and one point behind them in the Eredivisie table<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Heerenveen will be hoping to secure their first victory away at AZ since October 2019, with the added incentive of leapfrogging their hosts in the standings this weekend.<\/p>\n AZ Alkmaar bounced back from their 3-0 defeat to Groningen<\/strong> before the international break with a 2-0 victory over Fortuna Sittard last weekend, as Mexx Meerdink and Sven Mijnans scored two first-half goals to secure the win.<\/p>\n After suffering defeats to FC Utrecht<\/strong> and PSV Eindhoven<\/strong>AZ responded in emphatic fashion by cruising past bottom club Heracles with a dominant 4-0 victory.<\/p>\n Head coach Lee-Roy Echteld has impressed with 10 wins from 17 matches across all competitions, although he has also overseen three defeats in the last five league games.<\/p>\n Despite last weekend\u2019s victory, a 3-0 midweek defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk<\/strong> in the first leg of their UEFA Conference League quarter-final presents a significant challenge ahead of next week\u2019s return fixture.<\/p>\n The reverse fixture in November produced four goals as Heerenveen claimed a 3-1 victory<\/strong>but AZ have performed better at home in recent seasons, including a 9-1 demolition of Sunday\u2019s visitors two seasons ago.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Imago<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Heerenveen head into this clash on a five-match unbeaten run and continued their impressive form last weekend with a 4-1 thrashing of bottom club Heracles Almelo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Robin Veldman\u2019s side have emerged as one of the division\u2019s in-form teams after collecting 19 points from their last eight fixtures.<\/p>\n Their only defeat during that period came in a 3-1 loss to champions PSV Eindhoven<\/strong>while they also secured a 2-2 draw away to third-placed NEC Nijmegen<\/strong> before the March international break.<\/p>\n Sitting seventh with 44 points, just one behind AZ, De Superfriezen have already surpassed their 2023-24 tally by exceeding the 43 points they achieved last season, highlighting the impressive work Veldman has done in his first full campaign.<\/p>\n The visitors are unbeaten in their last two away trips and have recorded five wins from 14 matches on the road this season, alongside three draws and six defeats.<\/p>\n AZ Alkmaar Eredivisie form:<\/p>\n AZ Alkmaar form (all competitions):<\/p>\n Heerenveen Eredivisie form:<\/p>\n \u00a9 Imago<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n AZ are expected to remain without Jizz Hornkamp, Peer Koopmeiners and Ro-Zangelo Daal for this weekend\u2019s clash with Heerenveen.<\/p>\n Jordy Clasie returned to action last weekend after six months out with injury, making an 18-minute cameo appearance against Fortuna Sittard.<\/p>\n For the visitors, attacking midfielder Levi Smans remains a long-term absentee with a knee injury and has missed the last 32 matches since August 2025, while left-winger Amourricho van Axel Dongen is reportedly ill and could also be unavailable again this weekend.<\/p>\n Joris van Overeem, Vasilios Zagaritis, Maas Willemsen and Oliver Braude are all one yellow card away from suspension.<\/p>\n AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweet; Goes, Van Duijl, De Wit; Kasius, Smit, Dijkstra, Mijnans; Jensen, Patati, Meerdink<\/p>\n Heerenveen possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n Clover Jack; Braude, Kersten, Willemsen, Zagaritis; Linday, Overeem; Trenskow, Meerveld, Rivera; Nordas<\/p>\n \n \n This fixture regularly produces goals, and Sunday\u2019s encounter at the AFAS Stadion could deliver another entertaining spectacle for neutral fans.<\/p>\n However, with recent trends favouring home teams, AZ are expected to claim all three points and widen the gap in the race for European qualification next season.<\/p>\n For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.<\/p>\n \n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AZ Alkmaar host SC Heerenveen at the AFAS Stadion on Sunday afternoon, aiming to create<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMatch preview<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/thumbor\/sAlo64P7uM4v9FSbaLj3GZFU4ho=\/640x480\/smart\/filters:format(webp)\/https%3A%2F%2Fsportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net%2F25%2F20%2Frobin-veldman.jpg\"\/)
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\nTeam News<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/thumbor\/MJJdL2_5EN7fIQG7NUVKyu_0uNM=\/640x480\/smart\/filters:format(webp)\/https%3A%2F%2Fsportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F09%2Fmexx-meerdink-celebrates-scoring-for-az-alkmaar-on-september-21-2025-68d165065cf79362060969.jpg\"\/)
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\n![](\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/thumbor\/aAWazEIN-TXYyGNUOzzmBClUe-g=\/210x53\/smart\/filters:format(webp)\/https%3A%2F%2Fsportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net%2F20%2F33%2Fsm-words-green-background.png\"\/)
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWe say: AZ Alkmaar 3-1 Heerenveen<\/h2>\n
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