Because things quickly went wrong for Ajax. After two minutes the ball was already in. AZ had even shot twice. Twice Vitezslav Jaros punched the ball away somewhat strangely, but the Czech had no answer to Troy Parrott’s rebound on that second shot.
This was followed by a period without many opportunities on both sides. The biggest was for Ajax, in the seventeenth minute. After some fumbling at the back at AZ, the ball ended up with Oscar Gloukh. From the edge of the penalty area, the Israeli tried to shoot the ball with his right into the far corner, but AZ keeper Owusu-Oduro was just able to keep the ball out of his goal.
Dramatic first half
Then AZ became stronger again and that resulted in the 2-0 in the thirty-third minute. And the Amsterdam team was to blame for the way in which that goal came about. Because after a long ball from Owusu-Oduro towards Parrott, Sutalo did far too little to stop the AZ striker. The Irishman was able to run straight into Jaros to score his second and he didn’t fail.
Just before half time, the drama for Ajax became even greater. This time it was Peer Koopmeiners who did it for AZ. On the instructions of Mees de Wit, Koopmeiners was allowed to take a shot from outside the sixteen, completely free-standing. With the right, the midfielder placed the ball in the far corner behind Jaros: 3-0.
Red Wijndal and more goals conceded
With Rayane Bounida and Raul Moro in the team after the break for Davy Klaassen and Mika Godts, Grim tried to turn things around, but things soon went wrong again. After an unfortunate intervention by Gloukh, the ball in Ajax’s box ended up with AZ’s top talent, Kees Smit. He had all the time and space to find a corner. It was the left: 4-0.
As if Ajax had not already had enough blows to deal with, twenty minutes later another blow followed. From that moment on, the visitors had to continue with ten men. Wouter Goes was already on the ground when Wijndal came in with a hard tackle. The former AZ player was jeered by the home fans throughout the match, but when Wijndal was sent off for his foul on Goes, it turned into cheers. The AZ fans waved goodbye to the left back.
End of good series under Grim
Ten minutes before the end it got even worse. For the third time, Troy Parrott hurt Ajax and with that he put the unreal final score of 5-0 on the scoreboard. In the 88th minute Sadiq made the evening even more painful by making it 6-0.
With the embarrassing defeat in Alkmaar, a good series by Ajax and Grim comes to an abrupt end. Ajax won six of the last seven matches before tonight’s match, and the score was a draw away at NEC.
On Saturday Ajax can show that this disgrace was an incident. Then Go Ahead Eagles comes to the Johan Cruijff Arena.