15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Games, teams and line-ups

Moderators: ajaxusa, Kowalczyk, mods

SPL
Berichten: 12452
Lid geworden op: vr feb 04, 2005 7:22 pm
Locatie: WORTHING ENGLAND

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door SPL » di mar 15, 2022 11:12 pm

Alvarez did not foul the player and VAR doesn't look at it! Ajax could have played another 2 hours and would not have scored.

Again ETH has no plan B I really hope he leaves his poor subs has cost us recently and again tonight . In the 2nd half I did not realise Berghuis was on the field, he is a limited player at this level and so is Klaassen , but Kudus comes after 97 mins . Brobbey needed a 90 min work out for Jong Ajax to get match fit. Again Tadic and Antony really in a poor spell and Haller got nothing in the box and outside the box is a waste of space.

Still think we will chuck the title away we have played poor football in our 4 league games and deserved nothing from tonight.

At least Manu are out.

Tom_
Berichten: 3280
Lid geworden op: do feb 03, 2005 1:26 pm

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door Tom_ » di mar 15, 2022 11:22 pm

The commentator on the Dutch feed also didn’t think it was a foul. Personally I thought he got his trailing leg, so I would say it was a foul, but a very light one. In any case it’s a bad spot to give up a free kick when you have your opponent penned against the corner flag with their back to goal.

Gebruikersavatar
Orange14
Berichten: 9039
Lid geworden op: zo jul 06, 2008 10:02 pm
Locatie: Bethesda, MD

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door Orange14 » di mar 15, 2022 11:25 pm

kezme44 schreef:
di mar 15, 2022 10:46 pm
that one was on onana. either you stay on the line or you come out and and punch it away
Buy him a one way ticket to Milan. He should have saved that.
Appie Nouri will forever be remembered for his grace and humanity on and off the pitch!

kezme44
Berichten: 999
Lid geworden op: zo okt 31, 2010 8:28 pm
Locatie: NYC

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door kezme44 » di mar 15, 2022 11:44 pm

Orange14 schreef:
di mar 15, 2022 11:25 pm
kezme44 schreef:
di mar 15, 2022 10:46 pm
that one was on onana. either you stay on the line or you come out and and punch it away
Buy him a one way ticket to Milan. He should have saved that.
I wonder when people will stop calling onana a great keeper. He’s made some huge errors, including against Liverpool last year which also cost us a game. Good luck to him if he thinks he’ll get the start ahead of handanovic at inter.
Antony for me was the 2nd worst player tonight, didn’t do anything of note and always ran against defenders, his crosses were useless as well. Not sure why eth doesn’t try berghuis at the right wing position when antony is in bad form as he clearly has demonstrated in the last 5 games. Feel berghuis is wasted at the position he’s being played at

Gebruikersavatar
Amol
Berichten: 3163
Lid geworden op: do feb 03, 2005 5:03 pm
Locatie: New York

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door Amol » wo mar 16, 2022 3:10 am

Same story repeats. ETH plays his favorites and sticks to his plan. Playing through the wings and bombing crosses in. We had at least 3-5 headers attempts and all were terrible. If that's the game plan we want to use - then hit those damn headers at goal at least.

We never prepared a plan B and haven't done that in the last 4 years. We were lucky that some Eredivisie teams started playing some great defensive football against us. Rather than use that as a testing bed to build a plan B, we keep doing the same thing over and over.

Kudus comes on in the 96th minute. Tadic and Antony never taken off. Berhuis went missing in the 2nd half. Onana - should pack his bags and fly out to Milan.

But for God's sake - ETH. DEVELOP A F*#$ING PLAN B. And that doesn't mean new players playing the same roles and same patterns.

Gebruikersavatar
Orange14
Berichten: 9039
Lid geworden op: zo jul 06, 2008 10:02 pm
Locatie: Bethesda, MD

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door Orange14 » wo mar 16, 2022 3:14 am

The ignominious record of not having won a knockout match in the Arena is still intact. Ajax again dominated possession and save for the goal, defended well. Benfica were never a threat to score from open play but a sketchy foul called on Alvarez (Martinez was set to go after the linesman after the match and had to be restrained by ETH) set the stage up for a free kick that proved to be the match winner. Onana was caught in no man's land and after a long stretch of having nothing to do failed to respond and say the ball sail into his goal. I cannot say that I am surprised at the result given the poor form over the last four games in the league. Ajax should have handled Benfica in Lisbon so that tonight's match would not have been the pressure cooker it ended up being. All credit to Alvarez who defended the MF and Gravenberch who had another wonderful game; those were the highlights to me. I hope that the front office issues can be settled soon so that contracts can be dealt with properly as next season may end up being a major rebuilding year. Ajax will struggle to hold on to the two point lead over PSV who are also not convincing in European matches.

Player Ratings:

Onana (4.5) - one big chance to be a hero and he didn't; good luck as second choice keeper in Milan next season, give us a break and leave early
Blind (6) - really tried hard in the offensive end as he had hardly any defending to do, had one of the many hard shots that ended up not on frame
Martinez (6.5) - defended well
Timber (6.5) - as with his defensive partner he had a good match
Mazraoui (6.5) - decent enough and tried to work some 1-2 plays with Antony but too often they ended up 2 against 3
Alvarez (7) - really solid match with some critical interventions and won balls in the error, I cannot remember a bad pass all game long
Gravenberch (7) - good match and it is a real shame that he will be leaving this summer as he could be a special Ajax player next year
Berghuis (4.5) - honestly, what was his role in the match? certainly did not help out much on the right side of the attack
Tadic (6) - worked hard on his wing playing some good combinations with Blind and Gravenberch
Haller (5) - a couple of feeble headers was about it on the night
Antony (4.5) - is he a one trick pony who has now been found out? certainly expected and needed more from him
Klaassen (5) - neither good nor bad coming on for Alvarez
Brobbey (5.5) - did well to get free and had maybe the best chance on goal in the match
Kudus (NR) - maybe he deserves a start to see if he can make it at Ajax

Feyenoord up on the weekend with two benefits: it is a home game and Ajax have a couple of days of rest as Feyenoord have Thursday night footy
Appie Nouri will forever be remembered for his grace and humanity on and off the pitch!

SPL
Berichten: 12452
Lid geworden op: vr feb 04, 2005 7:22 pm
Locatie: WORTHING ENGLAND

Re: 15 MAR 2022; Ajax - Benfica; CL Round of 16

Bericht door SPL » wo mar 16, 2022 1:38 pm

Agree your ratings.Onana only had to do one thing and made a mess of the goal.Pasveer has done superbly well this season and let in very few goals but since Onana took over goals conceeded and defence struggling.Talk of Pasveer back in 4 weeks.

Back 4 plus Gravenberch and Alvarez no problems,all played well.Then the 4 big problems of last night and recent games, Berghuis invisible again ,Haller outside the box a non event, Tadic works hard but is struggling for form.Finally Antony was after Berghuis our poorest player.He does look like a one trick pony and should not be playing 90 mins every game.No one will pay 30m for him let alone the 60m we want.

These 4 attacking players get picked every game and apart from the limited Klaassen who replaces Berghuis after 70 mins the other 3 just play 90 mins and never replaced. Trouble is our back up forwards are not good enough.Danilo is poor and not up to Ajax standard,Daramy is not ready and should be playing every week with Jong. Brobbey will be useful now fit but we can only expect to see him get 15 to 20 mins.Not sure he can last a 90 min game.

ETH' s non use of subs and the overall poorer standard of our back up players is a big weakness. Cost us the Benfica tie and could cost the title.

One positive ,since the AZ defeat in game 16 we have won 9 out of 10 league games ,all 4 Cup and very unlucky to lose last night.I am sure PSV will drop points but so will we .

Plaats reactie