The Eredivisie is experiencing another blood-curdling denouement. PSV is on Ajax’s heels and the people of Eindhoven are doing everything they can to make up four points behind. There is just less and less time for that. But there is one factor that may help PSV cross the line: The Miracle of 8 May. And let it be next Sunday May 8th.
Ajax can theoretically become champion on Sunday. They must then be able to beat AZ themselves and PSV must lose to Feyenoord in the Kuip. If PSV wins, the Eindhoven team will have a chance at the national title, but Ajax will have to lose points for that. Both games will be played on Sunday, May 8. And history shows that that is a bad day for Ajax.
Since 1977, the team from Amsterdam has not won on May 8. They then lost 1-2 to Roda JC. And that’s not the only game that went wrong on May 8. On 8 May 2011, Ajax lost the cup final to FC Twente (3-2). In addition, on the same day in 2019, it lost the home game against Tottenham Hotspur (2-3), as a result of which they missed the final of the Champions League.
PSV benefits
And in 2016, things went wrong at Ajax perhaps the hardest. PSV took advantage of this in the final of the Eredivisie. The clubs had the same number of points, but Ajax had a much better goal difference. PSV had to beat PEC Zwolle with big numbers to become champion.
The ‘May 8 miracle’ ensured that Ajax drew against De Graafschap (1-1), who were last in the competition at that time. Because PSV managed to beat PEC Zwolle (1-3) the Eindhoven team unexpectedly became champions.
See here the equalizer of De Graafschap and below that the PSV players who watch the last minutes of the match.