Ajax has not succeeded in achieving Champions League football for next season. The team from Amsterdam had to win against FC Twente and PSV had to lose against AZ. Ajax itself lost to Twente (3-1) and saw that AZ went down in Alkmaar. As a result, the Europa League was the highest achievable.
The start of Ajax was not sharp. FC Twente was able to take advantage of two inattentive moments, but failed to do so. That was partly due to good goalkeeper work by Geronimo Rulli. The biggest opportunity at this stage was for Michal Sadílek. The Czech midfielder shot the ball on the crossbar. Ajax couldn’t do much in the counter-punch, the team from Amsterdam didn’t get any further than a header from Brian Brobbey.
Completely against the odds, Ajax nevertheless took the lead. Brobbey was played by Kenneth Taylor and passed on to Dusan Tadic. He flipped the ball over goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall, who had come out: 1-0. Twente seemed paralyzed, because Brobbey had the 2-0 on his shoe a little later. He turned away nicely and shot just past Twente’s goal.
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Ajax went into the dressing room with a good feeling, but that spirit could go in the trash after four minutes. Manfred Ugalde first headed in on a pass from Joshua Brenet in the 47th minute and defender Julio Plegezuelo plunged Ajax even deeper into mourning moments later: 2-1. As a result of the rapid backlog, hopes for second place had fallen to the lowest point. Especially after it became known that Xavi Simons had put PSV at 1-0 in Alkmaar against AZ.
A goal by former Ajax player Vaclav Cerny made it 3-1. Jesper Karlsson equalized for AZ (1-1) in between, bringing the Conference League very close. In the end, it didn’t get that far due to AZ’s loss in Alkmaar (2-1). Ajax got away well, after a possible red card from Steven Berghuis only ended in yellow.
The third place turned out to be the highest achievable for Ajax this season and that entitles it to the preliminary round of the Europa League.
Setup Ajax: Rulli; Rensch, Timber, Hato, Wijndal (Berghuis/72); Álvarez, Taylor (Lucca/72), Bergwijn; Kudus, Brobbey (Klaassen/46), Tadic