Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog on this gray Sunday. We will keep you informed of all regional top sports. Tips or questions? Email to [email protected].
Started: sc Heerenveen – Ajax 0-0
Mika Godts is knocked down in the box by goalkeeper Mickey van der Hart, but the former Ajax goalkeeper is saved. The Belgian was in an offside position, according to the VAR and the penalty was canceled.
A shot by Espen van Ee is touched by an Ajax player, after which the ball rolls painfully slowly wide. Ajax will do well there.
On the other hand, Kenneth Taylor tries to score from distance, but his effort also goes wide.
Bertrand Traoré gets too much space and dribbles in in his characteristic way. His shot disappears towards the stands.
We started in Heerenveen. Can Ajax win in Heerenveen?
Tallon Greekpoor and Botic van de Zandschulp failed to reach the quarter-finals in doubles at the Australian Open. The Portuguese Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral were just too strong for the Dutch in three sets. The set scores were 7-5 (5) 3-6 6-3.
Greekpoor and Van de Zandschulp were eliminated in the first round in the singles.
NAC has found its way back up again with a 2-1 home win over FC Twente. The victory lifted the club to ninth place in the Eredivisie. It was the eighth victory for Carl Hoefkens’ team, which had lost three league matches in a row.
FC Twente remained in fifth place due to the defeat. That place is now shared with AZ, which has a lower goal difference.
Former international Bas Dost will not return as a professional football player. NEC director Wilco van Schaik said this in the Good Morning Eredivisie program ESPN. Dost had been sidelined for more than a year due to heart problems.
The 35-year-old attacker went to the ground in October 2023 wearing a NEC shirt during an away match against AZ and had to be resuscitated. He turned out to have an inflamed heart muscle. Dost held out hope for a comeback for a long time, even after he left NEC last summer. According to Van Schaik, that hope has now disappeared. “Dost will no longer play football. He will never do that again, it is really an incredible shame what happened to him,” said the general manager of NEC.
Leader PSV was surprised yesterday by PEC Zwolle: 3-1. Later in the evening, AZ played a goalless draw against FC Utrecht (number three) and Feyenoord did not get further than 1-1 against Willem II. These results allow Ajax to take full advantage.
If Ajax wins at Heerenveen, the difference with PSV will be one point. The margin with FC Utrecht (five points) and Feyenoord (nine points) is therefore increasing.
Heerenveen – Ajax will face each other for the 35th time in Friesland this afternoon. The Ajax players won twenty of the previous encounters. Six times it ended in a draw and eight times Heerenveen won the match.
Kenneth Taylor has been accurate in his last three league games. After Davy Klaassen in 2013, he can become the first Ajax midfielder to score four Eredivisie games in a row.
Of all the teams that Ajax met at least thirty times away from home in the Eredivisie, the Amsterdam team only scored on average more goals per away match against Willem II (2.7) than against SC Heerenveen: 2.5. In total, Ajax scored 79 times in 32 away matches against the Frisians.
Welcome to our live blog this Sunday. We will keep you informed of developments at Ajax, which starts at 2:30 PM against SC Heerenveen. On this Sunday we will also be in Wijk aan Zee for the second day of the Tata Steel Chess. Don’t miss anything in our live blog.