10 DEC 2015 Ajax - Molde Europa League Group Play

[Orange14]

Final group match of the Europa League and Ajax host surprise group leader Molde. Ajax played well in Norway but couldn't score earning just a draw. In order to progress to the knockout round Ajax have to win and have Celtic either defeat or draw with Fenerbahce in Istanbul. I cannot see this happening but it is football and strange things do happen. Tete is suspended for the match so we will see van Rhijn at full back. Ajax have been on a scoring spree recently and let's hope it can continue Thursday evening.

[SPL]

Celtic wont win in Turkey but a win by us will still be important for Dutch UEFA co efficient points.

[Ayman]

Even if the Fenerbahce Celtic game ends in a draw it won't be enough for Ajax, because of the head to head results, Fenerbahce would go through. Our only hope for the coefficient points in europe, and to keep the two slots for the CL from next season onwards, is for PSV to go all the way to the final, who knows? They have a chance for topping their group, as long as they win against CSKA Moscow by a two goal margin and the Wolfsburg vs Man Utd game ends up in a draw.

[Orange14]

My error on what is needed to progress in Europe. Cannot see Celtic winning in Istanbul only hope that we play good football and thrash Molde!

[SPL]

Sinkgraven the only player missing so Sanogo is fit! Nouri was training with the first team in a squad of 23 today . Would love to see him sub .Equally I would love to see Sanogo put on a plane back to Arsenal.

[Dave the mac]

Well Ajax is sure playing great of late, scoring goals and fun to watch. Hope that they keep it up against Molde. I'd love for Ajax to continue in Europa but looks doubtful, but not the end of the world as they can then concentrate on getting back into the Champions league.

[SPL]

Only change from Saturdays squad is Riedewald back from suspension in place of Tete who is suspended for this match .
Heitinga and Sanogo left out . Cerny also left out .

It will be good for the Dutch coefficients if we can finish with a win .

PS Can I say it was a very good night for Dutch football last night with not only PSV winning but Man u being knocked out .Holland needs to keep 2 x CL places even if it does mean PSV doing well.

[Tom_]

Not much hope for progressing, but let's at least do our part and smash these guys off the pitch ;)

[Cruijff]

Not much hope for progressing, but let's at least do our part and smash these guys off the pitch ;)

Indeed, we should smash them off with a score like 3-0.

Shame if we not progress, which is about 90% chance. We f*cked it up during many different moments at Celtic at home, Molde away and Fenerbahce 2 times.

[Orange14]

For those in the US, ESPN3 Internet channel is carrying the match today.

[SPL]

Hopefully cricfree will show the BT channel ,as its on BT tv live .Very little chance of getting through but lets at least finish with a win .

[SPL]

Lovely header for Donny's first goal

[Tom_]

Bleuch, same old crap. I guess our players are too young to realise Molde are pushing them down the wing because these crosses aren't dangerous, but Ajax are walking right into the trap. Maybe FdB can do something about it at half time.

[SPL]

Yet another soft goal given away in Europe.We have spent plenty of time in their half but few chances except Gudelj shot against the crossbar.

[Orange14]

good football for about 15 minutes and then everything slowed down to a walk. Molde are dropping all but their striker behind the ball looking just to play for the draw. Nice chip by van Rhijn to give van de Beek a good header for the goal. Cillessen was unlucky that van Rhijn deflected the ball in for the Molde goal. If Ajax keep up this endless long slow build up and cross field balls they won't get anything but shots from distance which will never go in.

It's all academic as Fenerbahce are up 1-0 against Celtic.

[Cruijff]

Bleuch, same old crap. I guess our players are too young to realise Molde are pushing them down the wing because these crosses aren't dangerous, but Ajax are walking right into the trap. Maybe FdB can do something about it at half time.

Pffff you really saw this coming.

Ok start, pretty fine goal by Donny van den Beek but then you see them walking into the trap. Giving away the advantage, conceeding a goal way to easy AGAIN.

[Orange14]

Bleuch, same old crap. I guess our players are too young to realise Molde are pushing them down the wing because these crosses aren't dangerous, but Ajax are walking right into the trap. Maybe FdB can do something about it at half time.

Doubtful

[Cruijff]

Ok start, pretty fine goal by Donny van den Beek but then you see them

-n

Van de Beek.

Let's score another one!

[SPL]

El Ghazi can come on but no Cerny to score a winner tonight

[Tom_]

Terrible. The only significant chance I remember (el Ghazi hit the bar) came from the Molde turnover, not from an Ajax buildup. I guess if we can't beat Molde at home we don't belong in the knockout round.

[SPL]

What a poor clueless performance by Ajax ,thank goodness we are out of Europe ,not sure I can suffer any more rubbish football. A weak goal and 5 stupid yellows card ,2 from Gudelj.

[Cruijff]

Was really wild action by El Ghazi. Already before shooting the ball you saw that one would never go in.

We did not win even one home game during this campaign. Terrible.

[Orange14]

An ignominious end to our European dreams tonight. Ajax end up with one victory a bunch of draws and several losses. At least every player was able to put their shirts on the right way. There was a decent 15 minutes of football at the beginning of the game where the fullbacks were overlapping and there was some decent passing. That was about it. Two shots that hit the crossbar, several soft ones right at the keeper, a nice headed in goal and countless (yes, I lost count!) shots that missed to frame by meters, not centimeters but meters for goodness sake. Lots of soft cross field passes that even my 68 year old legs could have caught up to. THIS IS NOT FOOTBALL, this is a wing and a prayer. WTF was FdB checking his cell phone for? Was someone calling to offer him a job? Did he suspect that Celtic were about to beat Fenerbahce? He should have realized that it didn't matter because this team was never going to score the 2nd goal to win this match.

Props to Molde for realizing a 4-5-1 stifling defense was going to leave Ajax clueless.

Player Ratings:

FDB (1) - didn't get his team ready to play in a big match for the 25th time

Cillessen (7) - three good saves and I think he had the goal saved if it didn't get deflected in MOTM by default
Dijks (5.5) - best of all the back line players, did get forward well and seemed to want to cross the ball to someone; to bad nobody made runs in
Riedewald (4) - more completed passes to Molde players than Ajax
Veltman (4.5) - marginally better than Riedewald
van Rhijn (5) - good chip to van de Beek which deserves a point but otherwise mediocre
Gudelj (3.5) - two really stupid Yellow cards and a deserved sending off for a player who watched a lot of the game in front of him and did little to impact it
Klaassen (4.5) - another mediocre performance; if someone in Italy wants to pay €10M, sell him quickly as van de Beek is a better player
van de Beek (5.5) - courageous with the headed goal and seems to have the best field sense of any of the starters this evening
Fischer (3.5) - gets a point for being active and beating his man but the rest of his game was awful
Milik (3) - he's either very good or awful, no question which one turned up tonight Mr. Hyde
Younes (4.5) - beat his man twice and the was easily dealt with until being subbed off
Bazoer (5.5) - decent enough coming on, hope he go 90 minutes soon
el Ghazi (4) - nice shot of the cross bar but every other move he tried failed
Schöne (5.5) - a couple of nice possession as he came on for the final 10 or so minutes

I'm afraid not much will improve with this club until Nouri is ready for the first team. This team is to plodding slow (anyone see molasses flow in the winter time?). A quick passing team would destroy a club like Molde as they can only do one thing well and they can easily deal with slow passing clubs such as Ajax.

Call me disgusted with this European campaign!

[SPL]

Agree just about every word with Orange.Overall a woeful campaign but that late winner in Turkey was the difference as a draw there would have got us through I believe .

Including Schone I saw 5 midfielders tonight and the best 2 by far are Bazoer and v d Beek ,no idea why we needed to buy Gudlej or even Sinkgraven. The last 10 mins tonight cried out for a quick thinking creative midfielder and he was in the stand sitting with Tete ,yes , Nouri should have been given a chance.

The attack tonight had no clue and had the useless,always injured Sanogo been fit and come on maybe a few high crosses might have reached him ,but he probably would not have scored.