8 DEC 2016 Standard Liege - Ajax EL Group G Match 6

[Orange14]

Ajax have a short trip to Belgium to take on Standard in the final Europa League group match on Thursday. Bosz has indicated he will rotate the squad, resting some of the players who have been playing full 90 minute matches. Sinkgraven bruised his ankle against Groningen and likely will sit this one out. Don't know if Krul is match fit enough to see his first action for the senior team so it likely will be Boer between the posts. Tete may see his final match in an Ajax shirt before leaving in January. Perhaps de Ligt and Westermann are the defensive pair in the middle as against Celta with Dijks at LB. Bazoer is fit and will likely be one of the three MFs. Casseria will likely be the striker and perhaps el Ghazi gets a start on the wing.

[Cruijff]

Any gamblers over here?

Unibet offers 4.85 times your bet for an Ajax win, some other online Bookmakers perhaps even more as they rate is as a big factor that Ajax will come with a B team and Standard is still playing to stay in the tournament.

[Orange14]

the kids and Westermann played against Panithinaikos in the last group match and did just fine. Standard is going to have to score to win and Ajax are defending quite well these days. I suspect it's going to be 0-1 for Ajax.

[Cruijff]

the kids and Westermann played against Panithinaikos in the last group match and did just fine. Standard is going to have to score to win and Ajax are defending quite well these days. I suspect it's going to be 0-1 for Ajax.

Well you can fill in your predictions over here Orange14. Let's see how many points you'll score.

http://www.ajaxtalk.nl/Forum/viewtopic. ... &start=225

[Cruijff]

Peter Bosz says Tim Krul is still not fit enough for this game so Onana is bound to be the goalkeeper. Or perhaps Boer?

[Orange14]

Peter Bosz says Tim Krul is still not fit enough for this game so Onana is bound to be the goalkeeper. Or perhaps Boer?

I think there is a cup match against Cambuur next week and Boer usually plays in those. I guess this will be flip a coin to see which keeper gets the start.

[Amol]

Lineup for today -

Boer
Tete
De Ligt
Riedewald
Dijks
Klaassen
van de Beek
Nouri
El Ghazi
Cassierra
Younes

I'm guessing Klaassen is going to play DM like he did a couple years ago.

[Orange14]

I'm guessing Klaassen is going to play DM like he did a couple years ago.

As I recall he was more than decent in that role.

[Amol]

I'm guessing Klaassen is going to play DM like he did a couple years ago.

As I recall he was more than decent in that role.

I agree - he actually did pretty well there.

On a separate note, F-word is out, but AZ made it through by beating Zenit! This will be good for the Dutch co-efficient.

[Orange14]

I forgot that our old friend Eyong Enoh playrs for Standard. I just saw him in the runway shaking all the Ajax players hands.

[Orange14]

Wow this is definitely not good. How do these guys get in with flares and fireworks?? UEFA should call for immediate forfeiture of the match when this happens!

[Amol]

WTF is wrong with people. How and why do they think its ok to throw fireworks on the pitch. Plus how do people sneak that through security.

[SPL]

That ball was over the line we should be 1-0 up

[Orange14]

eG7 - GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL

[SPL]

Thats a beauty by El Ghazi

[Amol]

EL GHAZIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!

The boys have certainly come to play today.

[Amol]

I really haven't been so excited by Ajax in the past 8/10 years.

Bosz is getting it done. Also we have a tremendous generation of kids right now.

[Orange14]

Decent enough first half. As SPL said, it looked like that should have been a goal off the free kick. Don't know why the assistant on the goal line didn't see it. Nice pass from van de Beek to free up el Ghazi who was clinical. A couple of dicey moments on defense.

[SPL]

Not too many clear chances from us but we are the better side. v d Beek having a great time ,must have touched the ball more than any other player.

[Amol]

Riedewald completed 76 passes in the first half, only four fewer than the entire Standard Liège side (80).

[Orange14]

Good thing Standard can't hit the side of a barn door!!

[SPL]

Dijks should have been out there marking the winger

[rjf1]

He was out there unmarked all game long, and they kept going back to him the same way over and over again with no adjustment by us, and finally we got punished for it.

[SPL]

Well we held on in the end and a draw was a fair result El Ghazi probably should have won it with that break at the end.

de Ligt and Riedewald both fine games Donny superb . Klaassen worked hard Nouri not such a great game but 2 good chances.

Oh and can we buy a left back who can defend .Dijks is not good enough and Sinkgraven is not a defender

[Orange14]

Lots of missed chances by both teams. This match could have very well ended up 6-5 or something crazy like that. Some very good individual plays on defense but as a team, things were quite shaky in the final 40 minutes. Dijks was all over the field and seldom in the right place. Riedewald might have done better on the goal as the attacker he was defending is shorter than he is.

Player Ratings:

Boer (6.5) - had nothing to do for 50 minutes and then had to be on the top of his game as shots were coming in from all over
Dijks (4.5) - decent going forward but constantly leaving his wing exposed to Standard attackers
Riedewald (6.5) - some very good interventions and passing but maybe he should have done better on the goal
de Ligt (6.5) - decent enough but again was occasionally caught out of position
Tete (7) - locked down the right side completely
van de Beek (6.5) - some wonderful passing and some very poor defending
Nouri (5.5) - didn't get to see much of the ball but when he did things happened; should have converted one of the two chances
el Capitan (6) - ran a lot in the match but his poor touches were still more than the good ones
Younes (6) - continues to be less selfish as the season goes on which is a good thing
Cassierra (6) - worked hard and was denied by the keeper when he was in on goal
AeG7 (7) - goal was beautiful but he could have easily had two more with better finishing
Dolberg (5.5) - quiet match coming on as a sub
Ziyech (6) - on late for Nouri and had a good pass that AeG7 couldn't put away

Off to Enschede to play FC Twente on Sunday