Erik ten Hag obviously enjoyed the resounding victory of Ajax on a visit to Sporting Portugal (1-5). However, the coach of the team from Amsterdam did not sit on the bench with peace of mind for the entire match. At the end of the first half, Ten Hag briefly feared a scenario such as that unfolded last year in Bergamo, when Ajax let Atalanta come back from a double deficit.
“Of course I enjoyed it”, said Ten Hag in front of the camera of RTL7. “This is a very good performance, you can enjoy that. If a team knows how to implement the plan so well, that is fantastic to see. Many beautiful attacks, we cut through them fantastically, a compliment to the team. The key? Defending and at times the pressing. Although we did better on the left than on the right. I have to compliment the right side offensively, they were elusive there, but defensively on the right we still have to fine-tuning a bit.”
Sébastien Haller made a big impression by scoring four times in his European debut for Ajax. Ten Hag had not predicted that. “No, of course no one can think of that,” said the coach. “That’s a very exceptional achievement and only top players can do that. It’s great how he did it. But that’s Haller: he’s imperturbable. He has great statistics. That’s how I know him and he proves it.”
Remko Pasveer made a mistake at the end of the first half and led in a goal against. “He doesn’t look good with that goal,” said Ten Hag. “But that also has to do with, and this team also has to learn that, and we have to take that from this match: it is so easy, then we become a bit complacent. Then you see that you can let a team come back. at halftime also mentioned Atalanta’s match last year.” Last year Ajax led 0-2 at halftime and Atalanta came back to 2-2 in the second half. “That could have happened in the final phase of the first half and the initial phase of the second half. We really have to take that into account.”