Anderlecht midfielder Guillaume Gillet believes his side needs to up their aggression if they are to overturn the deficit against AZ Alkmaar in their Europa League second-leg last 32 match at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium.

AZ, who are second in the Dutch Eredivisie, took a slender 1-0 lead over the Belgian club in the first leg thanks to Adam Maher’s solitary goal.

The Dutch side made tough work against their Belgian opponents at the AFAS Stadion and squandered a host of chances.

With a place in the round of 16 still in sight, Gillet is confident his side can overturn Gertjan Verbeek’s side at home but admitted he had been on the receiving end of a pep talk from coach Ariel Jacobs.

“I am not satisfied with my performance,” Gillet told voetbalnieuws.be.

“(Ariel Jacobs) told me before the new year the Europa League is not above my level. I have played and I will reach that level again. He emphasised that he has confidence in me. It was only a five-minute conversation, but it hit home.”

And Gillet is hoping to capitalise on AZ’s shock 3-0 defeat by relegation-threatened FC Utrecht on Sunday – only their fifth league defeat of the season – when the two sides square up for their winner-takes-all clash tomorrow night.

“We are able to keep a clean sheet, we have already proven that a few times in the Europa League,” Gillet said.

“Last Sunday we won and they lost, 3-0, so we cannot be at a mental disadvantage. We know we were not aggressive enough in Alkmaar and we need to fix that for our home crowd.”

Anderlecht approach the match on the back of a 3-1 win over Westerlo in the Belgian Pro League, and AZ captain Niklas Moisander, who was sent off during the loss against Utrecht, expects another tough encounter.

“I expect more from Anderlecht than that first game,” Moisander told www.voetbalcentraal.nl.

“They will play as FC Utrecht did on Sunday, physically and from the first minute they will go forward.”