Ajax lost 1-6 against Napoli in its own Johan Cruijff Arena on Tuesday evening. That is the biggest European defeat ever for the team from Amsterdam. With the defeat, wintering in the Champions League is a long way off.
Alfred Schreuder’s team was already whistled hard after the three goals against in the weak first half. In the second half it only got worse instead of better. “Napoli has outclassed us,” said Ajax striker Steven Berghuis immediately afterwards RTL 7. “This result is unworthy of Ajax”.
In the ninth minute Mohammed Kudus fortunately made the 1-0 for Ajax. He received a hard shot from Kenneth Taylor, which caused the ball to change direction close to Napoli’s goal and the keeper had no chance.
Napoli reacted fiercely and in the eighteenth minute Giacomo Raspadori headed in a cross from the left flank. After more than half an hour of play, Giovanni Di Lorenzo put the Italians ahead with another header, this time after a short corner from the right. Just before half time, Piotr Zielinksi made the 1-3 after a quick counter.
Ajax went into the second half without substitutions and saw Raspadori increase Napoli’s lead after one and a half minutes. He shot in from close range on a pass from André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, who had just got the ball shoved in the feet of Ajax goalkeeper Remko Pasveer.
Red for Tadic
Ajax then tried to come back into the match and got some chances, but Chvitsja Kvaratschelia and Giovanni Simeone then scored the fifth and sixth goal for the Italians. With that, they completed the humiliation. Ajax captain Dusan Tadic received his second yellow card in between, because he had hung his arm around Eljif Elmas’ neck. He left the field to a loud flute concert.
The other match in Ajax’s group between Liverpool and Rangers FC ended in 2-0. Ajax is now third in the group with six points behind Napoli and three points behind Liverpool. To finish second in the group and advance to the next round of the Champions League, Ajax will normally have to win both the away game against Napoli next week and later the home game against Liverpool. And that seems almost impossible given the game shown on Tuesday evening.
Internazionale beat FC Barcelona 1-0 in group C. Hakan Çalhanoğlu scored the only goal in the injury time of the first half. Earlier in the evening, Bayern Munich won in the same group by a wide margin against Czech champion Viktoria Plzen (5-0). It was Bayern’s third win, where Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Ryan Gravenberch participated throughout the game.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 5, 2022