FOOTBALL – FC Emmen will travel to Amsterdam next Sunday as number 16, for the meeting with reigning champion Ajax. Excelsior jumped over FC Emmen tonight through the 2-1 home win over Go Ahead Eagles, René Hake’s team.
With 27 points from 29 matches, Excelsior now has two points more than Emmen, which will play against the current number 2 in the Eredivisie: Ajax in this round. The club that has had the wind in its sails since the change of trainer (John Heitinga came for Alfred Schreuder in January) with eight league victories and one draw. Moreover, Ajax also reached the cup final (in which PSV is the opponent later this month) at the expense of the likely future champion Feyenoord.
Add to that the support of the King, who expressed his love for Ajax in the podcast with Edwin Evers last week, and it should be clear: FC Emmen will have a tough evening in the Johan Cruijff Arena. “We will do our utmost to remove something from there. That is a very tough task, especially if the King is also against us,” said Lukkien with a laugh.
Training in the run-up to Ajax is difficult, Lukkien says. “That’s because you can’t imitate the resistance. You can show with images what they are good at and where we should place our emphasis. But it should be clear to everyone. Ajax must be having a bad day and we have a very good to get a result.” Go Ahead Eagles and FC Volendam proved that it is not impossible this season. Both teams played a draw in the Arena.
At FC Emmen, Jeroen Veldmate is probably fit in time for the game on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. Last week, in the home game against NEC (0-0), he was out with an upper leg injury. Mark Diemers is also back from mild pneumonia. However, there must be a line through the name of Danny Hoesen. The attacker was injured in training this week.
Ajax – FC Emmen can of course be followed live on Radio Drenthe on Sunday evening. The broadcast starts at 7.30 PM and the game therefore half an hour later.
Watch Niels Dijkhuizen’s interview with Dick Lukkien below