01 OCT 2015 Molde - Ajax EL Group Play

[Orange14]

In Norway on Thursday for an interesting tie with Molde who surprised me by how easily they handled Fenerbahce. With the draw against Celtic in Amsterdam this game is shaping up as one where a draw is necessary and a win is preferred.

[SPL]

A must win game but I will miss it . I am off to Brighton to meet my mates for a curry and quiz night at my cricket club.
We have 4 during the winter off season a chicken curry and then a quiz.Always fun .

Will keep looking at out score but after that home draw v Celtic I dont have much faith in our progress in the competition.

[Orange14]

@SPL - have fun at the Cricket Club!! Looks like we do not have any live television or ESPN streams in the US for this match today. I'll try to find a good Euro stream to watch the match if there is one available.

[Tom_]

My 5-a-side got cancelled because the guys I play with forgot to book a pitch. That's the south of Europe for you! Silver lining is I can watch the full match tonight...

[Dave the mac]

Yeah a very important game - huge actually. Hope to catch the 2nd half at least.

[SPL]

cricfree.tv always has good streams.I had a very clear picture on there the other night watching Jong Ajax

[Dave the mac]

Molde looks like a pretty cool place. Anybody been there?

[Orange14]

How this ever stayed at 1-1 is beyond me. Ajax had at least three clean shots on goal that were missed and Molde had a couple breakaways in addition to the on that they scored on. I have a stream on a small screen so it's hard to see the player numbers. I think it was Gudelj who made a terrible soft pass that gave Molde the break and then the winger got goal side of Tete for the easy put away. Really dreadful defending once the ball was turned over. Fischer is playing well but had an easy put away that he shot wide on.

The good thing is Ajax are really pressing forward, I guess FdB realizes that they need all three points to stay alive in the EL.

[Tom_]

Molde are not much good but Ajax has been SO sloppy! Worried they will pinch a goal and then we're done...

[Orange14]

Molde are not much good but Ajax has been SO sloppy!

Ajax should have had 3-4 goals in the first half!

[Tom_]

Agreed! We're all over them but still some dreadful defending (positioning), not just on their goal...

[Tom_]

Depressing result. I find that every bit as bad as a 4–1 loss to Real Madrid. Maybe we were unlucky but we're on our way to finishing bottom of what seems like a very weak group.

[souras84]

The El Ghazi miss?? I am beyond words

[Orange14]

It was a windswept night in Molde with the wind really whipping up in the 2nd half. The Molde keeper came up big on three occasions to save the draw. Amazing to me that with all the possession and space in the Molde half Ajax could not score more than once. There were enough gift wrapped chances to put at least five up on the board. Cillessen had a couple of key saves. The Ajax midfield certainly did not distinguish themselves on this evening. Not enough drive to the goal and some shots from range that were never on target.

Player Ratings (take these with a grain of salt as I was watching a stream that was not good enough to run full screen)

Cillessen (6) - sure he had a couple of good saves but had to do too much kicking which on a windy night is not a good thing.
Dijks (5.5) - caught out of position a little to often and when the midfield gave up the ball there was no defense on the left
Riedewald (6) - just a shade above average
Veltman (6.5) - slightly better than Riedewald
Tete (5.5) - I think it was his man that got goal side for the tap in but otherwise decent match
Gudelj (4.5) - soft pass gifted the break that resulted in the first goal
Bazoer (4) - other than a shot that hit the post, there was little good about his game
Klaassen (4.5) - did he do anything positive?
Fischer (6) - too many wasted chances to score him higher and it was only a lucky deflection that got him the goal; still it was a positive game
Milik (5.5) - decent enough holding the ball and had a couple of shots on goal
el Ghazi (5) - very average game so he gets a very average score
Younes (5) - had a few touches and did little with them but didn't turn the ball over
Serero (NR) - on for Bazoer and I don't think he even had a touch

In the other match Celtic and Fenerbahce drew 2-2. Home to PSV and I hope they don't shoot blanks like tonight.

[Orange14]

The El Ghazi miss?? I am beyond words

Well Fischer had three misses that were beyond words so that puts him two up on el Ghazi.

[Khraa]

Milik (5.5) - decent enough holding the ball and had a couple of shots on goal

Really? He was awful! He did 2 things right in 80 minutes. a 3 is a better mark for him (as well as for El Ghazi)

[Tom_]

Milik (5.5) - decent enough holding the ball and had a couple of shots on goal
el Ghazi (5) - very average game so he gets a very average score

I have never seen either of these two play worse than they did tonight.

[Orange14]

Milik (5.5) - decent enough holding the ball and had a couple of shots on goal
el Ghazi (5) - very average game so he gets a very average score

I have never seen either of these two play worse than they did tonight.

I have. But as I said, I had a poor feed on a small window so take everything (other than the poor performance from the midfield) with a grain of salt.

This team should have scored at least 4-5 goals against Molde. Makes me really wonder about the quality of Fenerbahce who lost to them at home!

[SPL]

Sounds as if we should have won but I have already written off Europe this season .

PS My radio is currently playing the Ajax song 3 Little Birds. Everything is gonna be alright!!