The numbers make for ominous reading: AZ Alkmaar are unbeaten across their past 25 home matches in Europe. They have only ever lost once here to an English team and that loss, back in 2007, ended three decades and 32 games without a European defeat in this red and white corner of northern Holland.
Suddenly, West Ham’s 2-1 first-leg lead from this Europa Conference League semi-final looks rather slim.
‘There is very little in it,’ David Moyes admitted on Wednesday night. ‘It’s an incredible record... it really is.’
Fortunately the manager who inflicted Alkmaar’s first home European defeat, the only man to lead an English team to victory here, is back in the away dugout on Thursday night.