The last round of the Champions League group stage is just around the corner and Ajax is already certain of wintering. Next Tuesday’s opponent, Sporting Portugal, is also sure of second place. In mid-September Ajax whirled in Lisbon and defeated the Portuguese with no less than 1-5, partly due to four goals from Sébastien Haller. Sporting will be keen on revenge and have nothing to lose, while Ajax can reach eighteen points in the Champions League for the first time in history. Together with TOTO, we look ahead to the match between Ajax and Sporting.
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Fifteen goals were scored in the previous three meetings between Ajax and Sporting, an average of five goals per game. Add to that the fact that Ajax scored the most Champions League goals this season (16) after Bayern Munich (19) and Manchester City (17) and that only Manchester City recorded more ball contacts in the enemy sixteen in this campaign (221) than Ajax ( 205), and it seems clear that goals will be scored in Amsterdam on Tuesday. The pressure is also off for Sporting, because they are already certain of the second place in the group. Both Ajax and Sporting have never achieved a clean sheet against the other, so all the ingredients for an open match with many goals from both sides seem to be present.
Do you also think that many goals will be scored in the match between Ajax and Sporting? View the quote here.
Ajax is already certain of group victory, but that does not mean that they will let go of the reins. Erik ten Hag is chasing records with his team, which can become the first Dutch team to win all group matches in one Champions League tournament. Once before, Ajax achieved sixteen points in the group stage, in the 1995/96 tournament. Currently, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are also fifteen out of five, so in the upcoming round of play, three teams can join the elite teams that once scored eighteen points in the group stage. In the entire Champions League history, that happened a total of seven times before, a list in which Ajax and Ten Hag will be happy to find themselves.
Do you think that Ajax can also win the last group match? Here you will find the odds for a victory of Ajax!
Haller is the top scorer of the 2021/22 Champions League along with Robert Lewandowski. Both the Ajax and Bayern Munich striker scored nine times, more than 19 of the 32 participating teams. For Haller it is his first Champions League participation, in which he shatters record after record. And he will also want to set the next record: that of the player who needs the fewest Champions League games to reach double figures in terms of goals. A record that is still in the name of Norwegian super striker Erling Haaland, who needed seven Champions League matches for this. Haller scored four times in Lisbon against Sporting and if he manages to do that again on Tuesday, the Ajax player will become the first player in Champions League history to be accurate in all his first six matches in the tournament.
Will Sébastien Haller also break these records? This is the odds for a goal by the top scorer of the Champions League against Sporting.
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