Ajaxtalk

no subs? i hope we aren't afraid of extra time! Lukoki, what was he thinking?

4-2 Vertonghen after a period of pressure - game over. Lets just hope for something similar in the one that really counts at the weekend...

AMEN to that! as we say in Greece: Ainte!!! Let's go and win a match on Saturday

Dirk or Jan for MOTM

Well FdB is certainly up for this one, Cillessen just sliced a clearance out for a throw in which got him and the bench off their feet and shouting, at 4-2 up with about a minute of stoppage time left. I suppose it's easy to underestimate the pressure that's around the place at the moment - good win in the end anyway, despite my earlier mis-givings. Could have been a lot more goals in this one at either end though....

Best performance I´ve seen for weeks.. de boer should really give this 3-4-3 formation a chance.. swap vertongen and ooijer and replace him wiht boilesen when he´s fit. great to see real wingers in both sides and enoh (MOTM) is perfect in the anchor role.. great game..

Vertonghen and Boerrigter each with a brace in a match that should not have been close. Several squandered opportunities prevented the score line from being 6-2. Roda also looked to have done some training in Portugal with the number of dives and fake falls to draw a whistle. It did look like we were playing a 3-4-3 for large parts of the match with Anita more a mid-fielder than a fullback. I don't think that this is the type of formation to play consistently unless you really press all over the field and have good ball control. Barcelona did it several years ago when they had a lot of injuries on the back line and Chile are one of the few international teams that regularly play this way. I guess we will see what FdB does this Sunday in the rematch.

Cillessen was good at passing the ball to the open man but did take some chances that Vermeer probably would not have. I couldn't tell whether he was at fault on the second goal. Alderweireld, Oojier and Vertonghen seemed to handle the back three duties for the most part. Enoh played quite well today disrupting the Roda midfield and pass the ball well (for him this is the highest complement). Janssen and de Jong both had decent matches in the midfield. Boerrigter scored when he had the chance and could have done better with his first clean shot but it went right to the keeper. Lukoki was a constant menace down the right BUT didn't consistently deliver a good cross and was a little selfish on several occasions where he should have passed. Bulykin didn't get much service but did hold up the ball well when it came in. I think if we improve the spacing and create some better passing opportunities we can shred a team like Roda. When the wings get double teamed, the pass has to come out quicker and there should be a mismatch in the midfield.

It was good to see the team finally dominate in the midfield and score some goals. If we repeat this performance on Saturday I'll start to believe once again.

Good win in the end ,Lukoki is very fast but needs to improve on his crossing but the kid is only just coming up for 19 . Great relief for everyone that we won ,lets hope for a repeat on Saturday .

Good Result. AZ next in 1/8 finale.