28 AUG 2018; Dynamo Kiev - Ajax; CL Qualifying

[Orange14]

Off to the Ukraine on Tuesday for the return tie to see if Ajax can qualify for the group stage in the Champions League. Holding a 3-1 lead, Ajax have the upper hand but one or two away goals in Kiev would be nice to seal the deal. Tagliafico is suspended for the match which means either Wöber comes into the lineup or de Jong drops to the back line. Let's hope that it is the former as Ajax will need a solid MF to control the match. It is possible that Neres will have recovered from his hamstring ailment to be in the team. No mention of when Dolberg will be ready to play.

Dynamo are a very physical team as we saw this week and Ajax will need to be totally focused if they want to make it to the next stage.

[Cruijff]

Off to the Ukraine on Tuesday for the return tie to see if Ajax can qualify for the group stage in the Champions League. Holding a 3-1 lead, Ajax have the upper hand but one or two away goals in Kiev would be nice to seal the deal.

Not the Ukraine, just Ukraine.
Match ticket for the away section is only 4 euros I love Kiev!

But f*ck off Dynamo let's hope Ajax will find an attacking strategy for this game, walking back in defense will go wrong for sure!

[Orange14]

Off to the Ukraine on Tuesday for the return tie to see if Ajax can qualify for the group stage in the Champions League. Holding a 3-1 lead, Ajax have the upper hand but one or two away goals in Kiev would be nice to seal the deal.

Not the Ukraine, just Ukraine.

Right you are and what a terrible grammar usage error on my part. We would say, 'off to the United States' but we would not say, 'off to the England.' Of course 'off to The Netherlands' is proper but not 'off to the Holland.'

What would you expect from a former Armani runway model?

[Orange14]

Passmaps for the first match are on Ajax Life courtesy of 11tegen11: https://www.ajaxlife.nl/updates/passmap ... jadin-1819 this points to a key problem for ten Hag. Look at how most the build up took place on the left side with Blind - de Jong - Tagliafico - Tadic/Ziyech I think Tagliafico's loss for the return match will be significant.

[Cruijff]

What would you expect from a former Armani runway model?

From a former Armani runway model I expect that his grammar and spelling are proper.

[SPL]

Neres is fit and Mitchel Bakker is going.

[Orange14]

ten Hag has announced the traveling squad to Ukraine for the return match against Dynamo. Neres is fit but it's not clear whether he will start. Tagliafico is suspended for Yellow Card accumulation. From the youth ranks, Dani de Wit, Kaj Serhuis, Dennis Johnsen and Mitchell Bakker (!!!!) all are on the travel squad. 21 players are going but only 18 can be on the match day team.

[Cruijff]

The team had a training in the stadium Olimpiyskiy the day before the match:
https://www.ajax.nl/streams/actueel/aja ... n-kiev.htm

Local time in Kiev is right now 03:01 AM.

[Cruijff]

Last time Ajax played in Kiev, in March 2015, Nicolai Boilesen was our captain, Ajax was told the pitch conditions were very bad so the day before the match they trained somewhere else.

The match against FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (or Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk, whatever you like) was lost 1-0 and after 2-1 in Amsterdam Ajax was beaten on away goals. Dnipro reached the Europa League final of 2015 and lost 3-2 against Sevilla.

Last time Ajax played Dynamo Kiev in Kiev was in August 2010, Jan Vertonghen scored 0-1 and his desire to play Champions League was extreme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5_MJnJ6-hk

Typical Ajax... when playing with 11 against 10 the team conceived the 1-1.

[rjf1]

Critical that we get the away goal back early -- after that, we should be ok. A second away goal should pretty much seal it as they would then need to score 5 goals to advance.

[kezme44]

wober playing for tagliafico. neres back on the bench. let's go!

[Orange14]

wober playing for tagliafico. neres back on the bench. let's go!

Why oh why didn't he get any minutes last Saturday? ten Hag really confuses me at times.

[SPL]

Just come in from a day out all set to watch just hope we get through.cricfree has only 1 link but its BT in english so fingers crossed it works ok

[Tom_]

Worrying start. Have to take better care of the ball!

[kezme44]

that would have been the killer blow. tadic misses pk

[kezme44]

vdb with a big miss. hope this doesn't bite us later

[Tom_]

Tight first half where Kiev started strongly but after 10 minutes Ajax took control in the midfield.

Could be 2–0 up with the penalty and several decent opportunities. You can't afford to miss chances like that in the CL and I hope it doesn't come back to haunt us. If Kiev gets a goal the tie suddenly looks completely different.

[Orange14]

Wöber and de Jong are playing very well. Tadic took a good penalty that was just a couple of centimeters off. Ajax have had a couple of other chances but couldn't find the good finish. Defense if doing enough other than Mazraoui's missing his man in the early part of the game.

there is still a lot to do in the next 45 minutes.

[kezme44]

HT. could have been easily 2 or 3-0 for us so far. don't think i ever seen wober getting that many touches in a game, especially going forward

[SPL]

Dominated the half KJH and Donny should have scored but Tadic's missed penalty could be a killer,If we lose 2-0 that miss will cost us 30m for being in CL and players values going up with CL performances I am very much on edge at the moment so must stay positive.

[SPL]

That away shirt is dreadful ,who ever allowed us to wear that should be shot.

[Tom_]

Far out, the ball just will not go in.

[kezme44]

just not going in tonight

[Tom_]

Seriously how have we not scored. This will kill me if Dynamo win.

[Tom_]

Phew. On top since the 10th minute but refused to make it comfortable. Maybe just unlucky but we'll have to put those chances away to compete for 3rd place in the CL group.