Galatasaray are rightly regarded as one of the favourites to win the Europa League. The extremely wealthy Istanbul club showed their worth in the last round against their key rival for the overall stage victory - Tottenham Hotspur. The Turkish champion is proving to be able to fight on two fronts this season. In the championship twelve rounds brought the team eleven wins and one draw, and in the Europa League the Turks lost points only after a clear underestimation of the opponent in Latvia. AZ Alkmaar in the current draw of the second European tournament has gained half of the possible points and before the fifth round has a real risk of not getting into the number of teams that will have the right to participate in the playoffs. The Dutch club is a formidable force at its own stadium, so the match with Galatasaray can be tentatively considered one of the most anticipated in the fifth round. Bookmakers have identified the visitors as favourites for the upcoming encounter, offering odds of 2.29 on their victory.

The club from Alkmaar in the current season is unlikely to claim any great achievements in the national championship. According to the results of the first thirteen rounds, the team of Maarten Martens is nine points behind the Eredivisie Champions League zone and sixteen points behind the division leader. In the Europa League, the team lost two away games, but won twice at home. Sweden's Elfsborg and fellow countrymen of AZ's future rival Fenerbahce were defeated. In the next match of the championship Alkmaar will host Herakles, so in the match with Galatasaray they will not hold them back from giving their best.

Galatasaray have lost only three games this season in August, but two of them had a decisive influence on the club's subsequent progression. They were played against Young Boys in the Champions League. However, the Turkish champions quickly found themselves in the Europa League and the new national Super League. In the championship, the team lost only two points out of 36 possible points after twelve rounds, and in the European tournament they lost points in Riga, where they allowed the weakest team in the Europa League to score two goals. Both sides are likely to show ambitions to win and at least exchange goals.