At both FC Utrecht and Ajax there was a ‘new’ face in the forefront. At FC Utrecht Naoki Maeda hired from Nagoya Grampus as right winger and at Ajax Brobbey borrowed from RB Leipzig. For Brobbey it meant his first league match for Ajax since May 16, 2021. Then he left for RB Leipzig, but that switch did not work out as he had hoped, so that he returned to Amsterdam on a rental basis. Since Sébastien Haller is active with Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup, Brobbey could start right away in the striker. Furthermore, Fabian de Keijzer was also under the bar at Utrecht. The keeper from his own youth made his debut for the Domstedelingen. He drove out Maarten Paes, who probably left for the MLS, who was the star of all in the Johan Cruijff Arena (0-1 win).
It was clear early on that De Keijzer would not succeed in keeping a clean sheet. After a good attack it was finally Antony who scored via Quinten Timber. A few minutes later, Timber escaped involvement in a second goal with a sloppy loss of possession, but Dusan Tadic’s ball hit the post via Mike van der Hoorn’s foot. An additional downer was that Maeda was soon unable to continue after a fierce – but correct – duel with Lisandro Martínez. It was also 0-2 within twenty minutes. Tadic gave in and Brobbey headed in his first goal in his second Ajax period.
Ryan Gravenberch in duel with Hidde ter Avest.
Ⓒ ProShots
After that, the team from Amsterdam slowed down and Utrecht could become dangerous every now and then. After Anastasios Douvikas had been wrongly flagged back because of offside, he had a huge chance for the header five minutes before half time after a good attack and cross by Sander van de Streek, but headed over from close range. Yet it was Ajax that scored on the stroke of half-time. Again it was Tadic who gave in and Brobbey for whom it was a breeze to walk into his second of the afternoon.
As a result, the second half was a lot tamer with little danger of goal. On the other hand, Quinten Timber was able to approach Pasveer alone once, but he did not succeed in outplaying the Ajax keeper. Davy Klaassen was allowed to fill in for the visitors, who therefore came to his 250th official game for the club.
Not much happened with him on the field, although Remco Balk did sign for the first shot between the posts of Utrecht in the 87th minute. It was an exemplary statistic for Ajax’s dominant victory. It is the hundredth of the team from Amsterdam in the Eredivisie led by Ten Hag.
Ajax thus takes full advantage of Feyenoord’s misstep on Saturday in its own Kuip against Vitesse (0-1). The arch-rival is now six points behind. PSV now has two points less, but will still play against FC Groningen.