What do Barcelona, Inter Milan and Rangers have in common? Villareal, Sporting, Real Betis and Sevilla? The Ipswich Town and Liverpool teams who conquered Europe in the Eighties? None left AZ Alkmaar with the taste of victory during the Dutch club’s remarkable unbeaten 32-game run in European competition, from 1977 to 2007.
And the man whose team inflicted Alkmaar’s first European defeat on home soil? David Moyes, whose Everton side knocked them out of the 2007-08 Uefa Cup. Talk of that night, when a 79th-minute James Vaughan strike was the difference in a narrow 3-2 win, drew a knowing smile from the 60-year-old West Ham United manager.
“It took me a wee while [to recognise the stadium] when I came here; it was a long
