Ajax won the away match at FC Groningen in an empty Euroborg with 2-3. In theory, John Heitinga’s team remains a contender for second place and the preliminary round of the Champions League, although the gap with PSV remains five points with two rounds to go in the Eredivisie.
PSV can secure second place next Sunday with a home win over Heerenveen. On the final day of the competition, PSV will visit AZ, which is now fourth with two points less than Ajax. John Heitinga’s team will play against FC Utrecht (home) and FC Twente (away) in the last two rounds. AZ will play the away match at NEC next Sunday, three days after the return against West Ham United in Alkmaar.
Without an audience in the stands and with the ash stains from Sunday’s thrown flares still visible on the field, it took Ajax all the effort today to recapture the third place from AZ that entitles it to the play-offs of the Europa League at the end of this month. It didn’t look like that at first, because Steven Bergwijn, playing as a shadow striker, had a free header in the first of the eighty minutes that were still to be played. And moments later, Mohammed Kudus failed to open the score.
Laros Duarte gave Ajax a helping hand within ten minutes. The Groningen midfielder knocked over Owen Wijndal, after which Dusan Tadic flawlessly cashed in the gift on his old nest from eleven meters. Wine valley in the base? Yes, the left back was allowed to show up again from the start after months, but he did not seize that opportunity despite his share in the 0-1. For example, Wijndal hardly intervened in Florian Krüger’s equalizer. The striker, who came in for Ricardo Pepi, who was injured early, was able to shoot freely and diagonally. Goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli also intervened insufficiently: 1-1.
And the degradant had already issued a few warnings for this. But both the defenders and the attackers were not exactly killers for either goal. Kudus had an imposed chance just before half-time, but he shot over. On the other hand, Rulli prevented Oliver Antman, who took a shower again without hitting a ball on Sunday, from creating an even more surprising halftime position with a slider.
However, a stunt remained in the making for a long time in the second half as well. In fact, Krüger had the best chance of the second goal in the third quarter. The German striker shot over in the next outbreak of the uninhibited playing Groningen. So did Kudus a little later. The handy Ghanaian, who is probably working on his last matches for Ajax, helped his club to regain third place ten minutes later by letting Brian Brobbey walk into the 1-2.
Jurriën Timber seemed to decide the make-up game on a header from Tadic (1-3), but Ajax would not be Ajax if it let the tension come back. Duarte curled the ball beautifully into the far corner in the 87th minute, but Groningen did not get any further than that 2-3 in the last minutes.
John Heitinga: ‘Very negative, we will win’
Afterwards, Ajax coach John Heitinga was asked by ESPN what he was satisfied with. ,,The opening was very good, but after that you have to press on. A few times we get through very well on the left in the first half, but then the line-up for the goal is not good. At 1-1 we also do not play an attack well and they strike in the counterattack, but the organization must also be much better there,” Heitinga said at ESPN. ,,After that there is also a lot of hesitation with Owen Wijndal. He just has to go ahead to block the ball.”
“Mohammed Kudus has to follow along with Groningen’s second goal. It is again very negative how we start now, because we do win. I think we got enough chances. We have to make the 0-2 and then you walk away from them, but I also have to give FC Groningen the credits. I saw them play one of their better matches today, so they should be complimented for that as well. But we have to make sure that we don’t play against ourselves, but just distance ourselves faster. We missed many opportunities again, unfortunately. We should have decided much earlier and that is now the prevailing feeling with me.”
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