03 May 2017 Ajax - Lyon EL Semifinals

[Orange14]

No Thursday night football this week!!! Europa League semifinal against Lyon is set for Wednesday with an earlier start, so check your television schedule!!! With the weekend off because of the Dutch Cup, the tired starters should be well rested. Veltman is suspended because of the Red Card against Schalke as is Viergever who picked up a Yellow Card to go along with the one he carried into the match. All the other Yellow cards are wiped out for the semifinals. Tete should start at RB but who will be LB? No word yet on Sinkgraven's health. Traore came of the pitch against PSV but his absence is less a problem.

[SPL]

Imagine Sinkgraven wont play so Riedewald will be LB, he played 70 mins on Friday at LB v VVV

[Cruijff]

Lyon striker Lacazette is out injured, will not be playing the first match. Another regular starter Tolisso is still in doubt of making it.

[Orange14]

Imagine Sinkgraven wont play so Riedewald will be LB, he played 70 mins on Friday at LB v VVV

By my count we have only one first team substitute for the back line, Westermann. I assume Zeefuik will be on the team sheet but that's really it.

[Ayman]

Despite the absence of Lacazette, I am not looking forward to this one, they still have fekir and are good at scoring important away goals, ask Roma, Beskitas and of course AZ Alkmaar

P.S I had this bad dream that it was 0-0 in the Amsterdam Arena for a long time until the last ten minutes when Ajax scored and made it 1-0 only for Lyon to make it 1-1 in a controversial goal near the end. Let's hope for something better!

[Cruijff]

P.S I had this bad dream that it was 0-0 in the Amsterdam Arena for a long time until the last ten minutes when Ajax scored and made it 1-0 only for Lyon to make it 1-1 in a controversial goal near the end. Let's hope for something better!

I did also already dream about this game three times.
All ending in very strange scenarios.

[Orange14]

P.S I had this bad dream that it was 0-0 in the Amsterdam Arena for a long time until the last ten minutes when Ajax scored and made it 1-0 only for Lyon to make it 1-1 in a controversial goal near the end. Let's hope for something better!

I did also already dream about this game three times.
All ending in very strange scenarios.

I had a dream that we were playing Dinamo Zagreb!!!

[Cruijff]

My dreams were even stranger. It started with Traore getting over 15 enormous chances scoring zero of them.

Then there was a version with Davy Klaassen running forward for the first time early in the game and scoring directly.
It ended somehow at the World Championship Snooker, where Ajax was in the semi finals after a 5-2 victory against Lyon the Ajacied who was the best at Snooker had to play many, many frames there to defend the 5-2 lead to get us into the finals.

[Orange14]

Fox is carrying the match live in the US. Big screen TV is great. Back with everyone at the half!!!!!!

[Ayman]

Boy did I open a can of worms with that one. Anyway it's Ajax 1-0 Traore. It's early let's hope Ajax keep it steady

[SPL]

Well taken goal and we are playing well at the moment

[SPL]

Dolberg superb 2nd

[Ayman]

de Ligt on a yellow card makes me nervous, since only Westermann is on the bench for the defence

[Orange14]

Some pretty scary defending from Ajax but they kept the slate clean. Two well taken goals and Younes really should have put his late half chance away. de Ligt was foolish to go in on a challenge at the midfield point and got a justified Yellow card. He's got to think a little better in those situations. Lacazette is likely to come on in the 2nd half for Lyon and that will test the Ajax defense.

[SPL]

A great 45 mins and Younes should have made it 3-0. Only needs one defensive mistake to give them a goal but so far so good

[Tom_]

Lyon are good at applying pressure but their defense is messy. Anything that doesn't involve an away goal in the second half will do fine!

[SPL]

Dolberg got pulled down and we could have had a pen.

[SPL]

Younes 3-0 am I dreaming

[Ayman]

Younes 3-0 am I dreaming

Just one more goal to put the game to bed!

[Ayman]

Shit! Lyon have that all important away goal

[SPL]

another beautiful goal 4-1. Donny for Schone

[Amol]

This was an incredible game to watch. We could've and should've had at least 2-3 more goals here.

[Ayman]

This was an incredible game to watch. We could've and should've had at least 2-3 more goals here.

It's too bad Ajax didn't get the fifth goal, that would have put the tie beyond any doubt. Now Ajax have a daunting task of not conceding many goals and scoring at least one

[SPL]

Wonderful game superb performance by every player .All should get 10 ratings . Still not over as it will be tough in Lyon but we played beautiful football and the great man will be looking down and nodding in approval.

Ajax at their beautiful best with young kids

[Orange14]

Some dicey defending and a number of wasted chances. This one could have ended up 8-5! Despite some disorganization on defense, the club was solid on set pieces and Onana had his best match of the year saving four really strong shots. Lyon's defense looked quite poor and Ajax should be able to score a couple of goals in the return match. Ziyech had his best match of the season for me and he gets my tip of the hat as MOTM.

Player Ratings:

Onana (8) - rock solid between the pipes and some really tough saves were made
Riedewald (7) = very nice game considering he's been sitting on the bench most of the season
de Ligt (7.5) - silly Yellow card but played way beyond his years
Sanchez (7.5) - won ball after ball on defense
Tete (7) - one poor turnover by otherwise quite good especially on offense; I don't want to see Veltman next week unless it is as a central defender
Schöne (5.5) - not his best game and didn't do much to help out on defense
el Capitan (6) - very quiet game
Ziyech (8) - all over the pitch and his passes were spot on with three assists
Younes (5.5) - got one goal when he should have had three and he was letting the Lyon RB run up and down the flank all game long
Dolberg (7.5) - one really nice goal and a wicked shot that the Lyon keeper had no clue on
Traore (8) - wonderful match from someone who has squandered chances this year
van de Beek (6.5) - nicely played coming in for Schöne and had a strong shot saved
Kluivert (6) - had a real nice take down of a cross field pass
Neres (6) - on late for Dolberg and created danger

Ajax need to stay focused next week and they can make it to the finals in Sweden!!!