12 MAY 2019; Ajax - Utrecht; Match Day 33

[Orange14]

With hopes of a treble dashed last night, Ajax still have one big trophy to play for. Ahead of PSV on goal difference, Ajax host Utrecht this Sunday before closing the season out against de Graafschap on May 15. I'm sure the players and manager are disappointed at what happened in the Cruyff Arena yesterday but they have the opportunity of adding the 34th Eredivisie title to their record.

[SPL]

Right time to look at this game ,forget Weds and win today.

[SPL]

No Neres and Schone on the bench . Veltman RB Mazraoui MF and KJH up front

[Orange14]

de Ligt can't win the header and Utrecht have a great chance that is properly converted. Good to see all the pressure from Ajax and a wonderful goal at the end of the half by van der Beek. AZ and PSV are scoreless at the half.

[Tom_]

Solid match so far and not a lot of trouble from Utrecht after the first minute! Let’s put the foot down and get a couple more.

PSV scoreless so far in Alkmaar.

[SPL]

Found a stream after 6 or 7 mins to see 1-0 down .Unlike v Spurs we have a reliable goalscorer today and KJH obliged. Donny popped up with 2-1 just on HT .Get a 3rd early to settle the nerves

[Tom_]

Crowd is cheering like AZ scored but it hasn’t come through in my live score app yet.

[SPL]

YES TADIC 3-1

[Tom_]

4–1 and PSV still haven’t equalised. I’m sure they’ll get away with it but we *could* wrap this up today.

[SPL]

Tadic 4-1

[Tom_]

Still 1–0 in Alkmaar heading into The PSV Minutes

[Tom_]

Full time in Alkmaar!

[rjf1]

It's all over for PSV -- Final: AZ 1 - 0!!!

[SPL]

We have done it champs .Stream stopped after the final whistle and mega nerves waiting for Az to finish.

Brilliant Brilliant No 34 for a beautiful very special Ajax kid ,that was for you Appie .

[Orange14]

AZ defeat PSV in Alkmaar 1-0 so it would require a massive win by PSV and a loss by Ajax on Wednesday to see the second piece of silverware taken away from Amsterdam. Good match against Utrecht other than the opening goal. Ajax were dominant in all phases of the game and it was a good send off for the supporters and those players who saw their last home action in the Arena.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - really had nothing to do and had no chance at the opening goal
Tagliafico (6.5) - good match
Blind (6.5) - pretty solid
de Ligt (7) - couldn't win the header on the opening goal but solid after that
Veltman (6.5) - went forward with some purpose and didn't have much defending to do
de Jong (7) - only one bad pass as he bossed the MF
Mazraoui (6.5) - a couple of poor passes but a rocket shot that the keeper saved
van de Beek (7) - all over the pitch as usual and the strong header got the match winner
Tadic (7.5) - cool as a cucumber in this match and showed great ball control
Huntelaar (7) - nice goal to tie the match and had a couple of other opportunities
Ziyech (7.5) - wow did he ever put pressure on Utrecht
Schöne (6) - good performance in relief of Mazraoui
Sinkgraven (NR) - on late
Traore (NR) - on for a minute and almost got the fifth goal

this will always be a season to remember in spite of the 96th minute against Spurs. Major shout out to ten Hag

[Tom_]

We have done it champs .Stream stopped after the final whistle and mega nerves waiting for Az to finish.

Well the celebrations kicked off pretty much spontaneously and I don't think the crowd would've let them leave without it. Better win next week, haha!

[souras84]

We have won the double in Holland and I bet everybody feels strange! That's the feeling of having a magnificent team. You know you could have more and feel bad you missed it. I know I feel that way...

[Amol]

We have won the double in Holland and I bet everybody feels strange! That's the feeling of having a magnificent team. You know you could have more and feel bad you missed it. I know I feel that way...

Had to miss the game this morning and just finished watching it! We are the Champions (almost)!! #34!!

Traore looks good and hungry. It would've been great if his shot had gone in at the very end. I feel next year is probably the last for Dolberg. If he doesn't make it, he's out.

[Tom_]

In all the excitement I’ve lost track of what this means for the CL next season. Do we go into the final playoff or the third round? Surely we’d be seeded, no?

[GangstaRiB]

Final playoff round. The year after next, the Dutch champion will head straight to the group phase.

[Orange14]

Final playoff round. The year after next, the Dutch champion will head straight to the group phase.

I think we are also seeded in the final playoff round, just as PSV were this season. Here is something I posted on Big Soccer about a way to reform the Champions League
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There have been several articles about this "new" format for the CL. IMO it will be a disaster for European football as it will just create a league of the haves with every other team on the outside looking in. UEFA really have to consider what is good for football across all the FAs and the competition should encourage and give hope to all leagues. I would fix the CL as follows:

continue the current group stage of eight groups of four teams

top 12 UEFA FAs by ranking are guaranteed a spot in the group stage for the league champion and this will be reset every year

continue to allow multiple entries into the CL for top ranked FAs as is now the case, but...

allow only two teams from any one league an automatic spot in the group stage based on their place in the league (maybe only the top four FAs get two spots in the group stage)

all other league champions and additional teams from top ranked FAs will be required to go through qualification rounds

set up four knock out qualification rounds with seeding but make it more difficult for the 4th place team in these FAs so that they have to play a minimum of two rounds (example: based on 2018 EPL standings, ManCity and ManU would go direct to the group stage; Spurs would be in 4th qualification round, Liverpool in the 3rd qualification round)

This would maintain the integrity of the FAs and make the CL a much more interesting competition since there would be more opportunities for an exciting knock out competition in the beginning.

I will be interested to see what the television viewer ratings are for an all English CL final this year outside of England. I'm not sure I have much of an interest to watch another EPL match as I've watched too many already this season.

[Amol]

In all the excitement I’ve lost track of what this means for the CL next season. Do we go into the final playoff or the third round? Surely we’d be seeded, no?

Just read about this on ESPN for next year's CL seedings -

POT 1: Liverpool or Tottenham (UCL winners), Arsenal or Chelsea (UEL winners), Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg

POT 2: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, FC Porto, Liverpool (if lose UCL final), Chelsea (if lose UEL final), Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, AS Roma

All other qualifiers would fill out Pots 3 and 4. Should Sevilla, FC Porto, Liverpool, Chelsea and/or Roma not need their place in Pot 2, it will be filled (in order of priority) by Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham and then Ajax.

Looks like we'll start in Pot 3 unless stars align in our favor.

[Orange14]

In all the excitement I’ve lost track of what this means for the CL next season. Do we go into the final playoff or the third round? Surely we’d be seeded, no?

Just read about this on ESPN for next year's CL seedings -

POT 1: Liverpool or Tottenham (UCL winners), Arsenal or Chelsea (UEL winners), Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg

POT 2: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, FC Porto, Liverpool (if lose UCL final), Chelsea (if lose UEL final), Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, AS Roma

All other qualifiers would fill out Pots 3 and 4. Should Sevilla, FC Porto, Liverpool, Chelsea and/or Roma not need their place in Pot 2, it will be filled (in order of priority) by Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham and then Ajax.

Looks like we'll start in Pot 3 unless stars align in our favor.

Those are based on the current UEFA Club Coefficients found here: https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations ... /#/yr/2019 Because of this year's success, Ajax have moved up to 20th place. However, it's not certain that some of the teams ahead of Ajax will even qualify for CL next year. ManU is out which moves Ajax up to 19th place. Right now, Roma and Sevilla are outside of qualification. For Ajax to get a Pot 2 seed they would have to see those results stand and Chelsea defeat Arsenal in the EL final, knocking Arsenal out (Chelsea are already qualified because of 3rd in the EPL.

Ajax still have to play the final Qualification Round but will be seeded for that.