Ajax - PAOK Saloniki CL Qualifier

[Cruijff]

Feyenoord?

A bit late, and a little off topic, but if we look at the passed two seasons, Feyenoord finished top of their group, which included Seville ,they also got a 1-1 draw away to Roma in the knockout stages. At the moment Ajax can only dream of achieving such results.

Mwa in periods that Feyenoord did not even qualify for European games with their results in the Eredivisie we did beat Manchester City with a 3-1 score that even should have been higher and in the away game Siem de Jong guided us very quick to a 0-2 lead.

At that time Feyenoord was nowhere near Ajax (also on a big distance after 34 league games every season) but fair enough: their results in the 2014/2015 UEFA Europa League was quite good. The behaviour if their fans wasn't.

[Cruijff]

Who will be our Mf . Gudelj suspended Bazoer injured .Klaassen ,Riedewald and maybe v d Beek or Sinkgraven.

This is their chance to excel, especially Klaassen and van de Beek, however I do see them struggling, when PAOK are on the offensive

Riedewald said a couple of times that defensive midfielder is by far his favourite and in his eyes also his best position, so today an opportunity to shine and to prove it....!

[Ayman]

Who will be our Mf . Gudelj suspended Bazoer injured .Klaassen ,Riedewald and maybe v d Beek or Sinkgraven.

This is their chance to excel, especially Klaassen and van de Beek, however I do see them struggling, when PAOK are on the offensive

Riedewald said a couple of times that defensive midfielder is by far his favourite and in his eyes also his best position, so today an opportunity to shine and to prove it....!

I always saw Riedewald as a midfielder, especially after he scored on his debut in a friendly. He can operate on the left side of the midfield as well.

[Cruijff]

I always saw Riedewald as a midfielder, especially after he scored on his debut in a friendly. He can operate on the left side of the midfield as well.

He is probably right and De Boer was, also with other choices, wrong in thinking for the player and 'giving' him a position.

Riedewald is not a dumb guy I think he can develop in something good and he also knows which part of the football he's good at combined with the situation he's weaker at.

[Ayman]

Line ups have been confirmed:
Jasper Cillessen
Kenny Tete
Joel Veltman
Nick Viergever
Mitchell Dijks
Jairo Riedewald
Donny van de Beek
Davy Klaassen
Mateo Cassierra
Kasper Dolberg
Anwar El-Ghazi


I expect Viergever to fuck up and concede a goal.

[Cruijff]

Besides Viergever exactly the line-up I hoped for with Cassierra as left winger and Dolberg up front.

Midfield should be dynamic, defense is a bit shaky.

[Tom_]

I've been looking forward to this one! I reckon we'll get an easy win ;)

[SPL]

9 Dutch 7 from our youth, 8 if you count Dolberg. cricfree shows streams so hope to get one there

[Orange14]

Let's get ready to rumble!!!!

[Orange14]

What ever was Cillessen thinking???? I'm afraid that's the end of CL for Ajax

[rjf1]

Same old Ajax -- always managa to figure out a way to lose.

[Tom_]

Terrible. Came off a giveaway from Viergever, not his first either. But we're causing all sorts of problems for the PAOK defense, we can outscore them!

[Orange14]

The good thing is that the team is attacking the goal. I only saw a couple of back passes to Cillessen. Hard to tell from the Internet feed but Dolberg might have been onside and the goal should stand. Nice attack by Riedewald but unfortunate to hit the crossbar. El Ghazi and Dolberg both had chances though el Ghazi's shot was a lot better.

I don't know what Cillessen was doing on the goal. Maybe he thought there was no coverage coming over and he had to go out. He was wrong as Veltman would have made a play on the defender. Let's hope this is the last crappy goal of the season, it's getting rather tiresome.

PAOK looked disorganized on defense but maybe that changes after the half and they bunker down trying to preserve the 0-1 lead. Too bad as Ajax really outplayed them in the 1st half.

[Ayman]

Well I did cite Viergever as a source for our weakness. Although Cillessen was at fault mainly. There has been some free flowing footballl from Ajax, thejy just need to convert them into goals. I noticed how Dollberg turned and took a feeble shot easily saved by the Keeper!

[Orange14]

Viergever had a 50/50 half. He was actually very good going forward with the ball. However, as noted he had two turnovers which created danger.

[SPL]

Not alot to add,Dolberg looks decent given he has come out the youth and wasnt the main scorer for the youths last season.Viergever would not have been playing had Bazoer been fit

[Tom_]

I also think el Ghazi was dreadful in the first half. Just too selfish.

Other than that, I'm really liking how the ball is going forward through the mf and the quick passing combinations.

[Tom_]

There we go!!!

We're good for three more I reckon!

[SPL]

Well I said Dolberg looked decent,lovely debut goal.

[rjf1]

All right! We got one back. But we're still behind by an away goal, so we still have to keep pushing.

[Ayman]

9 Dutch 7 from our youth, 8 if you count Dolberg. cricfree shows streams so hope to get one there

Neither Dollberg nor El Ghazi came through the Ajax youth ranks. El Ghazi came from Sparta Rotterdam in 2013 aged 18. Dollberg came from Silkeborg aged 17. Neither count as youth, as neither came when they were under 16

[SPL]

Well we created chances but let in a silly goal with Cillessen possibly making the mistake to come out of goal. We could still win next week but think we are going out the CL . Dolberg my MOM ,thought he may have been on side for that disallowed goal , but took his goal well, ran constantly looking for the ball.

Could have done with this being the away game .We played 3 x 19 and 2x20 year olds, one of the youngest teams we have put out and but for injury Bazoer, also 19, would have played with Riedewald CD and not Viergever.

Lovely to see our own kids but in reality we are never going to compete in Europe with a bunch of kids.

[Orange14]

Not the result Ajax wanted but it looks like a repeat of what happened several years ago. The Bosz New Ajax is certainly a refreshing team to watch. Much higher tempo and a midfield that actually passes the ball quite well. all the preseason work looks like it will pay off in the long run this year. Unfortunate mental mistake by Cillessen conceded the goal and PAOK offered very little else in terms of attack. Ajax had most of the possession but it was good possession with much of the match played in the PAOK half of the pitch. Riedewald was MOTM for me, just really took control of the midfield as the DM and fired a rocket that hit the crossbar.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (4.5) - not much else to say about the goal but he had a fine save in the 2nd half coming out and grabbing a headed ball that was goal bound
Dijks (4.5) - had a couple of good crosses but this level of play is beyond his skills as he's just not quick enough down the wing
Viergever (5.5) - yes he had two bad give aways but his pass got the play going that resulted in the goal and he had some nice movement into the offensive half with some good entry passes; as I said a very 50/50 match
Veltman (7) - very nice match on defense and probably had the man covered on the screw up goal
Tete (6) - beaten one time badly but fortunately Cillessen snuffed out the chance; otherwise a good match and he's going forward making himself available for a pass back from el Ghazi
Riedewald (8) - just and excellent all around game
van de Beek (6) - thrown into the mix against an experienced team and held is own, nice soft kick that set up el Ghazi's shot on goal
Klaassen (6.5) - worked really hard and ball skills are much improved
Cassiera (4) - got the ball maybe 3-4 times in total and didn't do much with it
Dolberg (7) - looks like a promising player and took the shots when they were there, nice goal to even things
el Ghazi (5.5) - plays much better when he looks to pass rather than beat two players, had a decent shot on goal
Younes (5) - not much to say other than it was a very average performance by a player who should do better
Schöne (5) - on late for van de Beek; only had a touch or two
Cerny (NR) - not on the pitch long enough

Return trip next week to Greece where by all accounts it will be quite warm with a hostile crowd. Ajax need to get the away goal very quickly to set the tempo for the match.

[SPL]

Fair point El Ghazi was not from our youth but he and Dolberg played in our youths , 6 homegrown locals though .

Riedewald had a very good game probably was mom as per Oranje but I went for Dolberg fine debut from a kid , actually he is 18!

[Orange14]

I suspect that Riedewald will be the DM this season. He's much better than Gudelj based on what he did today as well as a couple of years ago when he also saw some action there. He wants to play in this position and I think Bosz will accommodate him. Don't know what this means for the back four. Maybe Westermann slots in ahead of Viergever.