24 MAY 2026; Ajax - FC Utrecht; Playoff Final

[Orange14]

Utrecht it is as they hold on to beat Heerenveen 3-2. The one manager that I DON'T want to see on the touch line is the one who will be there on Sunday in his final game before retiring. Ron Jans has gotten the better of Ajax more times than I can count. Remember the disastrous Cup loss to PEC Zwolle 5-1? Jans was the manager that day. We'll see how Ajax handle things in one final match in this horrible season.

[SPL]

Last nights performance gives me some hope . Only change Dolberg to start and Weghorst can come as a sub for his final match with Ajax. Game is 18.00CET but due to problems with drunken fans looks like it will be 12.15.

[Orange14]

Ajax record this season with Aaron Bouwman playing: 9-1-0. Let hope the streak extends this Sunday.

[SPL]

Nearly gave away a goal at the start but fairly even since. Need a good right winger as Berghuis does little. MF offers little, see this going to pens

[SPL]

Weghorst has had a bit of flu and Steur was not 100% so both subs

[SPL]

Great goal by Davy now just hold on for 15 mins to avoid pens.we wont win pens so come on lads

[SPL]

Well its pens,we never seen to beat Utrecht and never win pens so i am resigned to defeat.

[SPL]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Miracle we beat Utrecht on pens.highlight of the season what an exhausting 3 hours we have just watched .We last fitness wise in both these play off games.

[SPL]

We have played very well in both play off games and fought for the wins. Klaassen is MOM as he worked hard scored the goal and a penalty and kept going until the end.He may be limited but he gave his all today so did every player .What a horrible ugly football side Utrecht are,thank goodness they did not succeed

[Orange14]

After a lackluster season, Ajax come up with two very good matches to win the playoff to get into the Conference League play-in games. Ajax dominated the game but some good goal keeping from Utrecht kept the ball out of the net. I never thought Klaassen would be able to go 120 minutes and he was really winded in the end. He had a nice goal in extra time and an assist on the Utrecht goal that evened things though there was not much he could do about that. Paes came up big with a great save in the early going and then saved two penalties in the shootout. Had Ajax played with this kind of intensity during the season they would have at least finished second. I don't think Garcia is the manager the club needs but he did get them prepped for the two playoff matches. We'll see what Jordi decides in the days to come.

Player Ratings:

Paes (7.5) - fine match with two saves of PKs though Haller's kick was really bad, kicking and distribution were good
Gaaei (7) - defended pretty well on the day and had a couple of good crosses
Bouwman (7) - rock solid on the day and will likely be next season's starter
Baas (7) - good match and came off midway in the second half
Rosa (7.5) - I thought he had a fine match both defending and in the offensive half
Regeer (7) - played well though he still is not the answer in the MF
Mokio (7) - solid game but had to come off with what looked like a muscle issue in his leg
Klaassen (7) - yes, I kept saying bring in Bounida but then he surprises me with a goal in extra time and a Captain's penalty to start off
Berghuis (3.5) - absolutely horrible and should have been subbbed off at the half
Dolberg (6) - decent enough with the ball but never had a chance to shoot
Godts (7) - tried to do too much in the face of double teams but did score from the spot in the shoot out
Steur (7) - I don't think he had a bad pass the whole time he was on the pitch and had a couple of good interventions as well
Carrizo (6.5) - worked really hard while he was on the pitch
Weghorst (7) - nailed his penalty and had a couple of chances during open play
Itakura (6.5) - did well in his short stint at #6
Tomiyasu (NR) - did not expect him to play but he was more than decent defending

So that's it for a mediocre season. I'll have more to say on the road ahead in the next couple of days. It was good to see Ajax play like Ajax!!!

[Orange14]

Nearly gave away a goal at the start but fairly even since. Need a good right winger as Berghuis does little. MF offers little, see this going to pens

You were right on target with this!!!!

[SPL]

Berghuis was dreadful and should be paid off. Paes was MOM for his saves but Klaassen,Rosa and Bouwman all superb. Bouwman has not lost in 11 games he has played this season and although not yet ready for every game he impresses me a lot more than Sutalo and Itakura. Sell these 2 and Verschuren can come back after an impressive season at Volendam.Veltman can return he can cover RB and RCD.

Lovely Volendam has been lucky for us, its a beautiful little fishing town and next door Edam is one of my favourite places.

[Amol]

YESSS!!!!! Finally beat Jans even though it needed penalties. I hate how he sets up his teams against us and we can never seem to break their ultra defensive low block. Great parting gift to Jans on his final game as a coach!

I saw until the Klaassen goal and then had to step out and was following the score nervously.

I'll say it again - I'll take Bouwman every time before Sutalo. We were decent in defense at the beginning of the season and it started to go sideways generally when Sutalo regained fitness and reclaimed his spot.

Another thing I've spotted is that Baas seems to play better and controls the game from the back when Bouwman is around. I didn't see him do that at all this season when Sutalo was playing.

Agree with ratings and we need to get rid of Berghuis. Carizzo clearly is already providing better value than Berghuis. I'd keep Rosa as well who does a really good job.

[Tom_]

It took me 5 sittings to get through this!

Finally the midfield is working a bit better and it just makes it clear how poor the attackers are. If anyone on the team could finish apart from Klaassen, they could have won that 2 or 3 nil in normal time. Godts doesn’t even look up, he just dribbles around in circles and then falls over.

Glad it’s all over, not sure i want to watch conference league next season though.