17 SEP 2019; Ajax - Lille; CL Group Day 1

[Orange14]

Ajax host French club Lille in the opening match of their Champions League Group. Lille are currently in fifth place in the French league with three wins and two losses. As with Ajax they lost two top players from last year's club and I'm not sure they were adequately replaced (they were a surprise in any event).

ETH indicated that Mazraoui and van de Beek will not be available for this match.

[kezme44]

i have a bad feeling about this one. their nigerian striker is on a roll and our defense is looking pretty bad. i actually might not be able to watch this one. was supposed to be in DC for a meeting and had arranged to be back by 130 PM but now the meeting got changed to a TC so have to go into the office. idiots. but i'm taking my ipad with me and hoping i can watch the game in one of our relaxation pods...

[souras84]

I agree! We should play extra carefully. Their game is exactly what doesn't suit us. Transition play

[Amol]

Have butterflies in my stomach right now. Read rumours that Neres and Dest are starting today.

[Amol]

Lineup for today -
Onana; Dest, Veltman, Blind, Tagliafico; Álvarez, Promes, Martínez, Ziyech, Tadic, Neres

Subs -
Varela, Schuurs, Huntelaar, De Jong, Marin, Ekkelenkamp, Lang

[SPL]

Nervous just hope for no silly defensive mistakes.

[Amol]

I haven't been able to watch the game, but umm we're up 1-0! Might be another game which I should sit out and not watch.

[Tom_]

One great spell of 15 minutes that included our goal. Otherwise Lille have been quite dangerous. They’re really fast and there is way too much space between our defenders.

[kezme44]

not being able to watch the game either. the stream is really spotty for some reason. sounds like lille have been dangerous the last 20 minutes forcing a big save from onana at the end of the half. gotta close down those spaces.

[SPL]

Good goal and decent first 30 mins by us but Lille have come back in it.

[Orange14]

Great goal and Ajax were a bit unlucky not to have had 1-2 more. The defense is skating on a knife's edge and they really need to avoid any turnovers that can lead to breaks as Lille have good speed up front. Pretty weird that there was not an extra minute or two before the half.

[Manneken Pis]

Pretty weird that there was not an extra minute or two before the half.

Especially as we were in the middle of an attack...
Tadic also got brought down with a professional foul/wrestle without any punishment.

[kezme44]

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!!!!!

[SPL]

Glorious goal by Alvarez

[Amol]

Up 2-0 now!! I will stay in my meetings and follow this on twitter and uefa.com since that is a winning formula for CL games for me this season.

[Amol]

NIICOOOO TAGLIAFICOOO!! 3-0!!

[SPL]

Tagliafico super header

[Amol]

Lang on for Ziyech! Are we bossing around that much or did Hakim get hurt?

[Amol]

Huntelaar on for Neres in the 84th minute.

[Amol]

Ekkelenkamp now on for Martinez. Ballsy moves by ETH.

I'm definitely watching the whole replay tonight.

[Tom_]

Off to a great start in the group!

Despite the score, Lille did get three huge chances that luckily all went straight at Onana. All got a bit weird when Lang and Ekkelenkamp came on at the end but I think ten Hag was just resting players.

[SPL]

Yes a great start possibly should have got more but Lille had 3 good chances. Alvarez and Martinez settling into Midfield.So much of our football is just a joy to watch,yes its the Ajax way ,plus 6 players from our academy on the field at the end.

[Orange14]

Onana keeps a clean sheet by the thinnest of threads and the offense puts three into the net. With some better accuracy by Lille attackers this match might have turned out different. The defense when they were not dealing with breakaways was actually pretty solid. Both deep lying MFs did excellent jobs of interrupting play and passing the ball. Blind played strong in the center of defense and Veltman other than weak shirt pull in the early part of the match was OK as well. ETH, as last season, went with kids when he was making late match substitutions with Lang and Ekkelenkamp coming on. 3-0 win is a solid result and Ajax will have to travel to Valencia for their next match. Although the Spanish club appears to be in a state of crisis they beat Chelsea 0-1.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7.5) had to be really alert to some fast breaks but came out quickly cutting down the angle, had to do more kicking than any match I've seen him play
Tagliafico (8) - wonderful goal, he always seems to get free in the box; had a couple of very good interventions
Blind (7.5) - yes, he's still slow but after a couple of dicey moments in the first half stood tall
Veltman (7) - good on the night
Dest (7) - pushed up into the offensive zone a lot and dealt with the Lille fast break on his side well enough
Martinez (7.5) - really solid and his handling speed is quick
Alvarez (8.5) - all over the pitch on both offense and defense, a true box to box MF
Promes (7.5) - solid with the ball all night and almost had a second on the nice over the top pass
Neres (6.5) - a little too loose with the ball for me
Tadic (7) - good in tight spaces again
Ziyech (7) - had a wonderful shot clang off the upright in the first half
Lang (5.5) - a little too exuberant with the ball but good to see him get game time
Huntelaar (5.5) - didn't get much of an opportunity to shoot but dropped back to get the ball milking time off the clock
Ekkelenkamp (NR) - on late

PSV on the weekend and then the rescheduled match against Fortuna Sittard mid week.

[Amol]

On a side note, the Netherlands are now ranked #9 in the co-efficient list with today's win. The Dutch jumped over Ukraine and Turkey.

https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/ue ... k2020.html

[Tom_]

Oh nice, that’s definitely good news.

Did anyone watch Chelsea – Valencia? I saw the 20 min highlights package. It’s only one game but neither team looked that scary to me. Chelsea played a lot of crosses to their big CF. Valencia’s goal came from a set piece but they seemed to get rolled in MF a lot.