Erik ten Hag should prepare his team better for Benfica’s counterattack, say Wesley Sneijder and Jan Boskamp. Particularly in the second half of the first eight-final match, Benfica threatened several times from a counterattack; that’s how Roman Yaremchuk’s 2-2 came about. The defense during counters, and in particular the control over your own left flank, according to the analysts of RTL 7 the most important lessons of the evening.
Afterwards, trainer Erik ten Hag says that ‘everything is still open’. “We have to learn from our mistakes. If we are good on the ball, we can create chances to win,” he says. According to Sneijder, the most important task for Ten Hag is to thwart the life-threatening switch. “Ajax must monitor more control over the left side. You cannot leave Rafa Silva in a free space during the transition. Then you will be faced with opportunities again anyway. But if Ajax just plays its own game and its own stadium, it has to be very going crazy, Benfica wants to continue.”
Benfica comes at 2-2!
Remko Pasveer stops the first shot, but puts the ball ready for substitute Roman Yaremchuk: it’s level again. #UCL #BENAJA pic.twitter.com/hZLKrf0DMZ
— VTBL ? (@vtbl) February 23, 2022
Boskamp thinks that Ajax could have made other tactical choices. “You have to know that they are life-threatening in the counter, but you still give them room for that. You have to talk about that with those guys,” the analyst notes. Ten Hag judges by Ziggo Sports that the 2-2 is ‘not allowed’ to fall. “You can’t let yourself be countered while you’re leading 1-2. That shouldn’t happen to us, then you should read the game situation better.”
The coach denies that he has more worries after the 2-2 draw than before the game. He looks forward to the return with confidence. “We have shown that we can play well against them. If we are a little calmer on the ball in the return, spaces will arise and then we can create opportunities. We have also seen that Benfica is very dangerous in the transition and in the set pieces. We’ll have to do better.”
Only one Ajax player really played a top match in Lisbon
Voetbalzone handed out report numbers to the players of Ajax.