Ajax failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In the Johan Cruijff Arena, Benfica lost 1-0.
Ajax, which started with Jurriën Timber, Noussair Mazraoui and Edson Álvarez, had to finish the job in-house after it got stuck at 2-2 in Lisbon. The team from Amsterdam started convincingly and immediately forced a great chance via Antony, but his header went past the goal.
Offside goal
The home team then thought to take the lead in the sixth minute. Sébastien Haller hit the mark, but did so from an offside position. Benfica was therefore quickly warned and had a hard time with the team of trainer Erik ten Hag.
Text continues below the tweet.
The Portuguese were quickly put under pressure and it was difficult for them to play football. The match soon became more physical, because Benfica had to change things up a bit. In the last fifteen minutes before the break Ajax did push for the goal of Odysseus Vlachodimos.
Steven Berghuis, Antony and Ryan Gravenberch dangerously fired on the goal from outside the box, but without success. Ajax had little to fear from the visitors, because goalkeeper Andre Onana did not have a single shot on goal before half-time.
Benfica extremely effective
Ajax started the second half with difficulty and had to watch out for Benfica’s counters. Berghuis tried with a shot from the turn, but the bet from outside the box went over. The match was pretty locked up, so it started to look more and more like a fight match. Benfica, who had not yet had a shot between the posts, took the lead in the 77th minute, completely against the ratio. Darwin Núñez headed in from a free kick from the right: 0-1.
In the remainder of the match Ajax did push on and Benfica was mainly busy with time wasting. That paid off, because Ajax just couldn’t find it.
Ajax setup: onana; Mazraoui, Timber, Martinez, Blind; Álvarez (Brobbey/81), Gravenberch, Berghuis (Klaassen/81); Antony, Haller, Tadic