Ajaxtalk

We now know which teams will be in Pots 1 & 2 for next season's CL. Based on results, Ajax drop down to Pot 3, just behind Porto in UEFA Coefficient. It looks like another grim year for Ajax unless the draw is extremely fortunate. Best Case Scenario would be to draw Villareal (beatable) or Athleti (tougher competition) which would exclude both Real Madrid, Barca and Sevilla from the group. That still means one of Juve (beatable), PSG, ManU, Liverpool or Dortmund. Lille, Sporting. or Inter would also be reasonable but it would be likely that one of the English or Spanish clubs would be in the group. Death wish is to get Bayern as all Pot 2 teams other than Dortmund become possibilities. This is gong to be a tough CL season.

Pot 1:
Chelsea
Villareal
Athletico Madrid
ManCity
Inter Milan
Bayern
Lille
Sporting

Pot 2:
Real Madrid
Barcelona
Juve
PSG
ManU
Liverpool
Sevilla
Dortmund

Over the past 2 seasons, Ajax fans were always hoping for Pot 2, look how that worked out. I agree, as long as Ajax don't get Bayern, there is a chance, since Ten Hag has the formula and tactics for the current team, most of whom will stay (First team players)

despite being down to 10 men, benfica manage to play 0-0, relegating psv to the europa league. means also more money for us as we don’t have to share the cash with psv. look forward now to the draws.

kezme44 schreef: ↑

di aug 24, 2021 10:15 pm

despite being down to 10 men, benfica manage to play 0-0, relegating psv to the europa league. means also more money for us as we don’t have to share the cash with psv. look forward now to the draws.

Apparently UEFA rejigged the way money is distributed to the clubs. So, we're only making 800k or so extra because of PSV dropping into EL unlike prior years.

kezme44 schreef: ↑

di aug 24, 2021 10:15 pm

despite being down to 10 men, benfica manage to play 0-0, relegating psv to the europa league. means also more money for us as we don’t have to share the cash with psv. look forward now to the draws.

I watched the match and PSV were pretty bad. They had a real good chance when Zahavi had a clear shot on goal but clanged it off the cross bar. It would have been interesting if it went in as he might have been offside. PSV MF were awful and it was pretty clear why van Ginkel never made it at Chelsea (of course he was constantly injured). I don't rate Sangare at all. Only decent players on their team are Gapko, Mandueke, and Max. I don't think any of the others could start at Ajax. It's too bad as they had a chance to gain more coefficient points on Portugal.

Let's hope Ajax get lucky and draw Lille and Sevilla from post 1 & 2!!! It is more likely that we will get Man City and PSG.

got lucky so far. dortmund and sporting Lisbon. pot 4 remaining

Sporting
Dortmund
Ajax

Doesn't look too bad at all right now. There are some crazy groups already.

and it’s besiktas. difficult away game but overall good draw

Amol schreef: ↑

do aug 26, 2021 6:06 pm

Sporting
Dortmund
Ajax

Doesn't look too bad at all right now. There are some crazy groups already.

Sporting
Dortmund
Ajax
Besiktas

I don't mind this group at all. Could've been way lot worse than this.

Agree it could have been alot worse.Dortmund for 1st place but no reason why we cannot finish 2nd ahead of Sporting and Besiktas.

I honestly don’t know how good sporting lisbon are. they won the league but don’t know how they compare against benfica and porto. they will be difficult games but 4 points against them should be enough

SPL schreef: ↑

do aug 26, 2021 6:21 pm

Agree it could have been alot worse.Dortmund for 1st place but no reason why we cannot finish 2nd ahead of Sporting and Besiktas.

dortmund are not very convincing either this year. had a very poor game against Freiburg last weekend. apart from haaland, the team can be shaky. defense is a mess, especially on the wings. overrated team imo

Haaland might net nine goals against Ajax. Too bad we didn't end up in Group G with all the weaklings.

PSV did not make it but they Feyenoord and now Vitesse all in the lesser European groups this season which is good news for Netherlands. AZ could still ko Celtic tonight.

AZ lost the tie to an ordinary Celtic team, so they drop down to the Europa Conference League. Don't see any of the Dutch teams tearing a swath through Europe competition this season.

I know you meant to say “except for us”

So we have all 5 teams in Europe which is good for Dutch coefficients as a top 10 finish this season will mean 2023 champs qualify automatically for group stages in 2023/24 CL (Holland are currently 7th and unlikely to finish lower than 10th this season.)

The injuries are piling up for Dortmund. Haaland has injured his hip and is out for several weeks and likely will not be fit for the return game against Ajax. Meunier and Schulz were also injured against Ajax and will miss several matches.

That’s bad news for them. I haven’t seen Dortmund play except in last week’s game, but to me they looked like a moderate side with a top notch striker.

Honestly I would be perfectly happy even with a point in the return leg - just because we’re already in such a good position.

Also a good chance to grab some more coefficient points I guess?

I hope Ajax face at least a relatively strong side in the KO stages of the Champions league. Please no Salzburg or Benfica! Especially not Benfica, we already had fun with Portuguese teams. I want a Spanish side, preferably Atletico Madrid than Villareal. Of course I wouldn't say no to an Italian side i.e. Inter Milan, it would be good for the players, esp. Timber, Gravenberch and even Rensch to gain experience against competitive sides. That said, I would love for Ajax to play Chelsea, it would be a festive atmosphere in the Dutch bar in London (de Hems).

UEFA screwed up the first draw by not putting the right ping pong balls into the bowl so the Ajax - Inter pairing was negated. When the did the draw again, Ajax draws Benfica. I hope they don't have to do this a third time.

a relatively good draw. preferable to inter imo. But how can they mess up like that

I saw it live guys. The moment the unscrewed the ball and the name was Man U, it was all fucked up. The funny thing is, they continued the draw without any concern whatsoever. Imagine if that didn't go wrong and they never found out about the mistake

Saw we had drawn Inter and did not stop to see a redraw. So having stuffed Portugal's no 2 we now face their 3rd best team.