Udinese found it hard to cope with high-flying AZ Alkmaar in the first leg, and the Zebrette face a mountain to climb after the 2-0 defeat at AFAS Stadion.

The Friuli outfit have been exceeding expectations throughout the season as they managed to successfully balance their Serie A and Europa League campaigns.

Even if coach Francesco Guidolin kept fielding under strength line-ups, the Zebrette managed to qualify for the Europa League knockout stages, where they recorded a 3-0 aggregate win over PAOK.

The first leg against AZ Alkmaar came at a bad time as Udinese had already started to feel the ill-effects of the busy schedule and numerous injuries to the playing squad, and the Dutch side did well to take advantage of that to record a 2-0 victory.

The Zebrette have since lost to Novara as well, and with the second leg coming just three days before the all-important clash with Napoli, odds of 2.05 (21/20) offered by BetVictor on home win do not look too tempting.

Damiano Feronetti has resumed full training and he should start, but Dusan Basta, Mehdi Benatia, Neuton and Paulo Barreto are all injury doubts. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu and Mauricio Isla remain sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (3-5-1-1): Handanovic – Ekstrand, Danilo, Neuton – Ferronetti, Pinzi, Pazienza, Asamoah, Pasquale – Fabbrini – Floro Flores.

Considering that AZ stayed without several important players in the summer and only brought Roy Beerens and Joze Altidore, the team from Alkmaar were predicted a tough season.

However, despite boasting a pretty inexperienced squad, Gertjan Verbeek’s side have largely impressed in all the competitions entered and they are on the road to make this one of the most successful seasons in their recent history.

The team currently has a three-point cushion at the Eredivisie summit, with Ajax, Twente and PSV all trailing in their wake, whereas their Europa League campaign has been nothing short of amazing.

AZ did experience small problems in Europa League group stage, having won one and drawn 5 group games, but they then recorded a double victory over Anderlecht before beating Udinese 2-0 in the last 16 stage first leg.

Given the way Gertjan Verbeek’s side have been playing of late, odds of 1.15 (3/20) offered by 188BET on AZ Alkmaar to qualify should be taken into consideration seeing there is almost no risk involved.

Midfielder Maarten Martens is doubtful with a leg injury, but Gertjan Verbeek has no other injury worries.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Alvarado – Viergever, Marcelis, Moisander, Poulsen – Holman, Maher, Elm – Maartens, Altidore, Beerens.