11 Dec 2013: AC Milan - Ajax

[Tom_]

You know what Fischer and Bojan could both learn from Klaassen? Try to do something useful with their first touch. I really like the way Klaassen plays first time passes, but the way the other two dribble into defenders makes me want to throw the TV out the window. I won't be surprised if one of them comes off at half time although I can't say which of them is having the worse game.

[paladinby]

We should move Schone to central midfield and replace Bojan who's very much acting like an invisible man.

[Orange14]

Milan should have no complaints about the Red card as it was a horrific tackle by Montolivo (who generally is a decent player). Trouble is we are playing too tentatively with the man advantage. Club was better when the sides were even. We have trouble when teams bunker down with two lines of four and I'm not sure that the current forward line is the right one. He don't have anyone who is good in the air. If Sigthorrson is healthy he may be an option in the second half.

[Ayman]

I think Poulsen may come off at half time, as a precaution, hopefully, replaced by Ligeon, and move Blind in midfield, that will really get the engine started in attack

[paladinby]

The thing i really don't like and understand is our high crosses from flanks - there's no de jong or sigthorsson there but only bojan. so we should cross low or at least aim to.

[Van basten]

If only Poulsen would scored that header..

[Tom_]

I think Poulsen may come off at half time, as a precaution, hopefully, replaced by Ligeon, and move Blind in midfield, that will really get the engine started in attack

Actually Poulsen's had a decent game, only one or two dodgy passes and otherwise doing his defensive job really well. But they had Ruud van Nistelrooij on TV at half time saying we should play 3–4–3 and then shots of Hoesen warming up, maybe Hoesen for Poulsen?

[Tom_]

Unbelievable how dirty these guys are. Even the ballboys get in on it. Why would anyone want to support this club???

[martinkohout]

A pretty depressing display so far - lousy crosses, off-target shots....

[ofey]

My wonder is why didn't we go to 3-4-3 in the last 20mins?

Barca spanked Celtic anyways so,
Lose, we'd be in the Europa League.
Win, we'd be through.

DeBoer really needed to be more brave.

[paladinby]

Milan are very dirty team but what can you expect from Italians??

We failed to create a good scoring chance against a 10-man opponent but generally I can't say a bad word about performance it the CL this season. We were not ready for such scenario, just hoping that Milan will crash immediately and we win the europa league.

[Van basten]

FUCK THAT. I blame for this one person - it' our coach. A stupid, stupid, stupid idea to play air balls all the fucking match. We could brake them through the center! Our tactics made so much more easier to defend for them.

[Tom_]

Pretty much what you'd expect in the end, Milan playing their usual crap and Ajax huffing and puffing but not really getting many great chances. Would've been nice if Klaassen's 96th-minute overhead kick had gone in. Still, we did pretty well to get 8 points in a tough group (twice as many as last year).

[King Litti]

bitter. So bitter. I could almost taste the win. We hesitated too much. Too much desperate crosses and shots. Sitill we did dominate, but now we have nothing to show for it. This team can go far in european league. Just got to find the motivation for it after this.

[Orange14]

This has to go down as a massive disappointment. A lot of cynical play from Milan and naive play from Ajax. Haven't they learned that any little touch will lead to a Balotelli flop? Just no clue about how to break down the Milan defense and in all honesty one must give props to them for defending solidly for so long. We seemed to do better in the air when Sigthorrson and van der Hoorn came on but nobody could put the ball on frame when there was an open shot. Very poor crosses from the fullbacks almost every single time. ball movement was way too slow!!!!! None of the forwards really did much at all.

FWIW Player Ratings:

Cillessen (5) - Had nothing to do all game long other than kick
Blind (5) - not a single good cross at all
Denswil (6) - OK but naive in challenging Balotelli
Moisander (6) - One of the better players on the field
van Rhijn (5) - had lots of open space but did little
Poulsen (6) - good while he was on
Serero (5.5) - not as good as in recent games
Klaassen (6.5) - best on the pitch IMO
Fischer (5) - poor shooting but was good on the ball
Bojan (3.5) - extremely poor
Schöne (6) - better in the midfield and had some good free kicks but nobody really attacked them
Hoesen (4.5) - had one header but that was about it
Sigthorrson (5) - did get in some headers to control possession
van der Hoorn (5) - same as Siggie

Bittersweet move to the Europa League and Thursday fixtures; not good for our league chances

[SPL]

Very disappointing but Milan ,who are a very dirty team ,had just too much experience at this kind of situation .As soon as the thug got sent off for trying to finish Poulsen's career you knew they would stick 10 men behind the ball and kick us .

Our attack was far too lightweight until we threw Siggy Hoesen and V d Hoorn up front . Bojan was our poorest player
and just sticking aimless crosses over was never going to work.

We should now be in the last 16 but losing to a very poor Celtic team in Glasgow cost us rather than the Milan draws.

[King Litti]

yes if if if if only, but the Balotelli dive in Amsterdam did bite us in the ass in the end.

[Manneken Pis]

I just love the way the San Siro sound system burst into life at the final whistle with a rousing rendition of "Simply the best"......

[souras84]

The minute they had their player sent off, I was 1000% sure it would end 0-0. It's just typicall Italian stuff, God I hate them! This thievery approach of both their clubs and national teams... We fell into their trap. Our naive players had no chance

[souras84]

Oh and one more thing. Where did Bojan say he wants to play as a starter???
What an idiot...

[Amol]

Was only able to watch the last 30 minutes on tv. I think we were already tired by then.

For some weird reason, when I saw that they had a player sent off, I immediately felt like we were going to lose the game.

[kezme44]

Apparently there was some serious crowd trouble before the game. Three Ajax supporters got stabbed, one of them was in a serious condition

[Philippe]

Very disappointing but Milan ,who are a very dirty team ,had just too much experience at this kind of situation .As soon as the thug got sent off for trying to finish Poulsen's career you knew they would stick 10 men behind the ball and kick us .
Our attack was far too lightweight until we threw Siggy Hoesen and V d Hoorn up front . Bojan was our poorest player
and just sticking aimless crosses over was never going to work.
We should now be in the last 16 but losing to a very poor Celtic team in Glasgow cost us rather than the Milan draws.

I agree except that we have to bear in the mind that the home game 94mn penalty cheat cost us 2 pts and gave 1 pt to AC Milusconi.
We missed Siem, Boilesen, and Veltman.
As Frank said, antifootball, a local specialty, won yesterday.

Time to focus on a 33rd title, with real football. F**k the UEFA.

[SPL]

I don't dispute that Penalty cost us in the end although maybe if Milan needed to win last night they may even have had to play football( if indeed such a team is capable of it).

I only said we should have beaten a poor Celtic side in Glasgow ,both goals were gifts and we should have won there.

In the end we are unlucky not to be in the last 16 and now its Thursday nights and Europa Cup. We need to concentrate on the league though.

[King Litti]

In the end we are unlucky not to be in the last 16 and now its Thursday nights and Europa Cup. We need to concentrate on the league though.

Kind of feel like the only thing that would make things right would be for us to win the european league and to see Milan get their asses kicked be Bayern Munchen 10-0.

But yes we should focus on winning the Eredivisie. With our luck we will draw Napoli or Benfica by the way.