“But so do we. We stayed sharp in the second half. There was an incredible spirit in the squad and we kept the peace. We also remained patient and defended their counters well.”
In the end it was central defender Jurriën Timber who scored the liberating goal in the 81st minute. In the opening phase of the second half, a goal by Dusan Tadic was disallowed as Antony was offside long before the Serb scored. “I thought that was very far fetched,” said Ten Hag at ESPN† “Mentally that was hard for us, and Willem II actually got more strength from it. Then it’s great if you still win a match like that.”
Ajax now lives with a good feeling towards next week. “First we had to play this match and now we can look at Benfica,” Ten Hag referred to Wednesday’s game in the eighth final of the Champions League. “It’s a very big game.”
View the results, position and program in the Eredivisie here