03 NOV 2020; FC Midjylland - Ajax; CL Group Game 3

[Orange14]

Off to Denmark for a Tuesday match against the Danish League champions. Ajax has a lackluster match yesterday against bottom of the table Fortuna Sittard. Let's hope they bring the 'A' game on Tuesday. Kudus, out with a long term injury, is the only player not available.

[Ayman]

Midjylland lost 4-1 on the weekend, so morale is low, however I won't take anything for granted, nothing less than a win is acceptable. On both legs of course, with that, I am praying for a 2 legged draw between Atalanta and Liverpool. I doubt it though, Liverpool should pick up a home win and an away draw, meaning Ajax must win at Anfield, that is a tall order but it's doable.

[kezme44]

11 positive corona cases among the first and jong ajax teams. let's see who it is but this could be problematic.

EDIT: sounds like Tadic, Klaassen, Labyad, Onana, Stekelenburg and Gravenberch tested positive.

[kezme44]

This is 17-man squad that will be travelling to Denmark:

Scherpen
Schuurs
Mazraoui
Blind
Martínez
Tagliafico
Klaiber
Timber
Álvarez
Ekkelenkamp
Neres
Antony
Promes
Traoré
Huntelaar
Brobbey
Jensen

If Scherpen gets injured, I wonder who will be our goalie...

[SPL]

Internationals and European CL games should all be cancelled with the virus rampaging again.

Defence and attack ok and Scherpen is better than Steks and Kotarski but mf oh dear. Blind DM,Ekkelenkamp and Promes. Easy to pick the 11.Jensen J.Timber have not played for a week or 2 and Brobbey and KJH wont start. Mazaraoui likely so Kleiber on the bench.
That leaves Alvares and I hope he does not start.

[kezme44]

I still think we can get away with a win but it will be much trickier now

[Amol]

Wow this is nuts.

[Ayman]

Internationals and European CL games should all be cancelled with the virus rampaging again.

Defence and attack ok and Scherpen is better than Steks and Kotarski but mf oh dear. Blind DM,Ekkelenkamp and Promes. Easy to pick the 11.Jensen J.Timber have not played for a week or 2 and Brobbey and KJH wont start. Mazaraoui likely so Kleiber on the bench.
That leaves Alvares and I hope he does not start.

Hell no that was torturous. We have to carry on as normal.

[Orange14]

Some of the players are being retested as it's possible they are false positives. Having covered the pandemic with my daily newsletter since mid-March I am not surprised at this outbreak among the team. The Netherlands as other Euro countries are having major outbreaks now. Juve were without Ronaldo for 19 days and Napoli had to forfeit a match. I think the International break should be cancelled for sure. There is no good answer to any of this.

One of the papers I read a couple of weeks a go was a COVID-19 test of all the players in the Russian first division. The rate of positive cases was about 14% as I recall. Most of the symptoms were quite mild and did not affect players physical performance.

[SPL]

Evidently Gravenberch and Onana have already had the virus and every test on them seems to confuse things. Think these 2 might be ok.

[Orange14]

Evidently Gravenberch and Onana have already had the virus and every test on them seems to confuse things. Think these 2 might be ok.

Correct. I read that Ajax tests players three times a week and UEFA mandates a different test for the CL matches. this is the test that showed all the positives. It's not unknown that someone can have a recurrent infection with COVID-19 but quite unlikely. I've only seen a very small number of examples here. It may be the different test is giving some higher number of false positives.

[Amol]

UPDATE: Onana, Tadic and Gravenberch have now arrived in Denmark. Still not allowed to play tomorrow. Ajax hoping for a last minute possibility that they could play still.

Klaassen and Stekelenburg have stayed back in Amsterdam.

[SPL]

Onana Gravenberch and Tadic have been given permission to play by UEFA but Ajax yet to confirm.Only Klaassen missing.

[Amol]

Yeah the Danish media is reporting that the trio is able to play. Ajax test to confirm.

[Orange14]

Good news on the three players who have joined up with the club in Denmark.

[kezme44]

first very good news of the day

[Ayman]

This game looks easy, but Ajax have a habit of making things difficult for themselves.

[Ayman]

Klaasssen and Stekelenburg spotted at the airport in Denmark (Source: Mike Verveij)

[Amol]

Klaasssen and Stekelenburg spotted at the airport in Denmark (Source: Mike Verveij)

You beat me to it. Clearly both of us are spending too much time on Twitter.

This is becoming a soap opera. What's next?

[Ayman]

Klaassen on the bench?

[Amol]

Starting 11 -
Onana; Mazraoui, Schuurs, Martínez, Tagliafico; Gravenberch, Blind, Ekkelenkamp; Antony, Tadić, Promes

Bench -
Scherpen, Klaiber, Timber, Álvarez, Klaassen, Neres, Traoré, Huntelaar, Brobbey, Jensen.

[SPL]

The way covid is tested here in Uk is shambolic but seems Holland not much better.

[Orange14]

The way covid is tested here in Uk is shambolic but seems Holland not much better.

this was a UEFA required test and not the one Ajax routinely do three times a week. Some tests can have modest false positives but this one is unaceptable given five players, including three how had past COVID, tested positive out of the 20 players they would be taking. That's a 25% false rate!!!!! I've never seen results such as this.

[Orange14]

Wow, have not seen backpass to the keeper called in a long time

[kezme44]

allowing so much space again