Ajaxtalk

philippe schreef:Yesterday, Fiorentina struggled to beat an opponent reduced to ten players (goals : '13 for Chievo, and '73 Gilardino + '90 Mutu for Fiorentina) : Chievo Verone number 19 of the 20 table.
We should be able to give them a hard time for their hopefully last game in this UEFA competition.

bluedaddy19 schreef:one thing we need to repeat from leg one is pulling felipe melo out wide... the key then is to play back inside and try to work our little slip passes that the attackers can shoot first touch

mako schreef:

bluedaddy19 schreef:I do worry that we may think we can coast a little bit, based on the unexpected result in Firenze. Or am I just being a ninny again?

Manneken Pis schreef:I don't think you're being a ninny Bluedaddy.

orange goblin schreef:Van Basten has called the follwing 19 men:


Maarten Stekelenburg
Bruno Silva
Oleguer
Thomas Vermaelen
Jan Vertonghen
Rasmus Lindgren
Kennedy
Urby Emanuelson
Miralem Sulejmani
Ismaïl Aissati
Kenneth Vermeer
Gregory van der Wiel
Luis Suarez
Gabri
Eyong Enoh
Leonardo
Vurnon Anita
Robbert Schilder
Toby Alderweireld

4 key players are back: Gabri, Vertonghen, Enoh and Emanuelson.
The non-available players are Wielart, Cvitanich and De Jong.
Other players not called for this game are Sno, the "babies" Sarpong, Martina, Blind, Bodul and - obviously - third keeper Gentenaar and long term injured Donald and van der Heijden.

aveslacker schreef:I'd read somewhere that Cvitanich is available.

orange goblin schreef:According to the official website, he is not fit enough..

So my starting eleven would be:

steek

v d wiel oleguer vertonghen vermaelen

gabri enoh lindgren

suarez sulejmani emanuelson


yes, indeed: I would like to see mickey as central striker. It won't happen, anyway.

orange goblin schreef:So my starting eleven would be:

steek

v d wiel oleguer vertonghen vermaelen

gabri enoh lindgren

suarez sulejmani emanuelson

PRANDELLI HOPES TO PROGRESS

Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli is confident his team can upset the odds and seal a place in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup.

The Viola travel to Amsterdam to meet Ajax on Thursday night trailing 1-0 from the opening leg in Florence.

Kennedy Bakircioglu grabbed the only goal of that game and Prandelli's team now face perhaps their the biggest challenge of the campaign so far if they want to go through.

"We are optimistic," said Prandelli. "We can overturn the result and progress to the next round."

But he added: "Ajax have plenty of experience at international level."

Fiorentina have never lost in the Netherlands, taking a win and a draw in their previous two visits.

The Viola reached the semi-finals of the competition last term only to lose 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw at Rangers.

And Prandelli believes his team has what it takes to go all the way this time.

"We want to go as far as possible in this tournament," said Prandelli. "We came mighty close last season to reaching the final and there is no reason why this time we cannot go all the way.

"But Ajax are also keen to their UEFA Cup run going, it is their primary aim and for us this is a problem."

The Florence-based outfit beat Chievo 2-1 at the weekend to keep a hold of the last Champions League qualification spot in Serie A. They are one point clear of fifth-placed Genoa with 13 games remaining.

Alberto Gilardino, who is the team's top scorer in Europe with four goals, will partner Adrian Mutu up front.

Despite his team's advantage, Bakircioglu still knows there is work to be done if the Amsterdammers are to keep their European hopes alive.

"It's impossible for us to be relaxed ahead of this game," he said.

"Fiorentina are a good team with quality players. We have to stay focused, just like we did over there. Now we have the advantage of playing at home with the support of our fans. That will give us the power to perform well."

Coach Marco van Basten has been boosted by the return of Gabri (concussion) and Jan Vertonghen (foot), while Urby Emanuelson is available after suffering a neck injury in the first leg.

However, Mitchell Donald (knee), Jan-Arie van der Heijden (knee), Siem de Jong (collar bone), Daley Blind (groin), Eyong Enoh (hamstring) and Dario Cvitanich (thigh) make up what is still a sizeable Ajax injury list.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,1703 ... 66,00.html

Fortunate Fiorentina find wins but not form

The conspiracy theorists might just wonder if Fiorentina were "in credit" with the referees after all. That was the term used by Cesare Prandelli, their coach, after a series of big decisions went against his team during their 1–0 defeat to Milan in January. A week later, after La Viola had a goal disallowed and a strong penalty appeal turned down in an identical loss to Juventus, Prandelli was so angry he couldn't speak. The team's owner, Andrea Della Valle, told Sky TV he feared Italian football was returning to the "dark days".

This week, however, the boot was on the other foot. Ninety-three minutes into their game against Chievo, La Viola were lucky to be level at 1-1 after being largely outplayed, but with less than 45 seconds of injury-time remaining Adrian Mutu dug out a winner from the edge of the area. Chievo's players were livid. During the build-up to his goal Mutu had appeared to foul Davide Mandelli, jumping into the defender while challenging for a high ball near midfield, only for the referee, Christian Brighi, to wave play on.

"Mutu used a kung-fu move," railed the Chievo manager, Domenico Di Carlo, afterwards. Gazzetta dello Sport's Luca Calamai was inclined to agree. "Chievo left Stadio Franchi with justified complaints," he notes in his match report. "One was greater than the rest: Mutu's decisive goal was preceded by a foul."

Of course, Fiorentina themselves would have had grounds for complaint had the result not gone their way. They were denied one penalty when Mario Yepes appeared to pull down Alberto Gilardino and had another, less convincing, appeal turned down after a shot ricocheted off the same player's arm in the area. Such things are easily forgotten in victory, however, and Prandelli was far more concerned by the disjointed nature of his side's display.

Fiorentina have now won four of their last five games and the only draw in that run came away to a Genoa side who are yet to lose at Stadio Ferraris this season. "On paper that looks like Scudetto-winning form," Prandelli noted. "The performances, however, have been anything but."

Last week Fiorentina were 3-0 down to Genoa with half an hour remaining before Mutu scored a remarkable hat-trick. The week before Sébastien Frey had pulled off a number of fine saves to keep La Viola level with 10-man Lazio before Gilardino snatched a 90th-minute winner.

"Sooner or later our luck will run out and that is when we need the real Fiorentina back," Prandelli said, but his side's greatest problem right now will not be an easy one to fix. Mario Santana was the driving force of this team from a creative standpoint and performances have dropped off markedly since he was carried out of this month's win over Bologna on a stretcher. Santana, who suffered knee-ligament damage and minor fractures to his left leg, is not expected back this season.

Against Chievo, Prandelli reshuffled from a 4-3-1-2 to a 4-3-3 and eventually a 4-2-4, but his team rarely looked cohesive. Thankfully for him, with Mutu and Gilardino up front, they do not always need to. The pair have now scored 27 league goals between them this campaign, making them by some distance the most prolific pairing in Serie A.

Unfortunately, the rest of their team-mates have combined for just 10 between them. With or without some help from the officials, that simply isn't good enough.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... a-juventus