Ajax did not concede a single goal in the first half of an Eredivisie game this season, until the team from Amsterdam visited Go Ahead Eagles on Sunday. The team from Deventer took a brutal 2-0 lead in the first half and according to Marciano Vink it is ‘completely deserved’. “Go Ahead has things well organized, and this is unworthy of Ajax,” said the analyst of ESPN†
Go Ahead Eagles struck twice mercilessly, but also needed some fortune to do so. Iñigo Córdoba’s shot from the tip of the penalty area caromed through Daley Blind’s block exactly over goalkeeper André Onana: 1-0 in the eighteenth minute. In stoppage time of the first half, a failed shot by Luuk Brouwers ended up with the completely free Philippe Rommens, who rammed the ball into the roof of the goal from close range.
Vink praises Kees van Wonderen’s tactics. “At their own sixteen they just play with five defenders. They have done very well and Ajax has a lot of trouble with it. And you see that if you are also sloppy, then you are actually playing a lost match. you also see with the 2-0 deficit. Go Ahead was on top of it and shows that they want to play football.”
The team from Amsterdam will have to change things up after the break. “Ajax is not sharp, not on the ball. Too many players underperform, the wrong players get to the ball. And when Antony, one of the players who does have to get the ball, is played, he is often sloppy.” Vink thinks it is still too early to call it an Ajax off day. “Not yet, it’s still 45 minutes.”