A day after the 2-0 victory over Besiktas, the Dutch newspapers are full of praise for Ajax. The Turkish champion was no match for the game of the team from Amsterdam. Among other things, the important role of Steven Berghuis is highlighted in the morning newspapers. The the Dutch international was preferred over Davy Klaassen and was decisive for the leader in Group C with a goal and assist.
Berghuis already scored against Sporting Portugal two weeks ago and provided Tuesday evening on the instructions of Man of the Match Dusan Tadic the opening goal. On the stroke of half-time, he was at the base of Sébastien Haller’s 2-0. “Again Steven Berghuis was of great value in an Ajax Champions League match. His so fraught transfer increasingly pays off as a perfectly timed move, ironically also for Feyenoord,” writes Sjoerd Mossou in the statement. General Newspaper. “The hatred and aversion will not be less in De Kuip on December 19, but secretly the transfer from Berghuis also works out fine for Feyenoord, at least in a sporting sense. The entrenched hierarchy with a player to whom everything was geared in Rotterdam has been broken in a natural way under the new trainer Arne Slot.”
???????????? ???????????????? ?? The glasses stand is off the scoreboard. Berghuis scores again in the ?? after excellent work by Dusan Tadic: 1-0!#ZiggoSport #UCL #ajabes pic.twitter.com/Q1CSaPmIsK
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) September 28, 2021
Conversely, Mossou sees Berghuis flourishing in Amsterdam. “As a playmaker, he was not only decisive on the ball last night, Berghuis constantly put in the work that comes with his new role, as well as the high level of the Champions League. That makes him a better and more versatile player. The appreciation in Amsterdam was correspondingly: when Berghuis was replaced by Klaassen after seventy minutes, the applause thundered gratefully from the stands,” Berghuis said. The Telegraph gets the compliments. “After the international break, there is no match for Erik ten Hag’s team, which remained clear in all competitions in the previous five matches, scored 24 times and conceded only one goal,” writes Ajax watcher Mike Verweij in The Telegraph.
“It was also the reason why the choice between Steven Berghuis and the again fit Davy Klaassen in the number ten position was an easy one for Ten Hag. That had nothing to do with Klaassen, because the child of the club gives every match his whole soul and bliss and has an impressive track record. But Berghuis is the man in shape. Leaving him alone paid off against Besiktas,” said Verweij. After his goals against Sporting and Besiktas, Berghuis is the fourth Ajax player ever to score in his first two Champions League matches after Quincy Promes (2019), Rafael van der Vaart (2002) and Jari Litmanen (1994). Verweij notes that after the break Ajax failed to further expand the score. “It didn’t bother anyone at Ajax, because after two group matches the harvest is ‘just’ six points and 5.4 million euros in profit premiums. Due to the double win, wintering in the Champions League beckons at the end of September.”
De Volkskrant saw Ajax perform a ‘football show’ in the first half. “Look carefully, fans, even if you support a club other than Ajax”, reporter Willem Vissers begins his praise of Ajax’s game. “Look without colored glasses at the core of football, at the sport as a game, at the fun, the movement, the technique, the quick recapture of the ball. Or to the occupation of the field, the alternation between functionality and playfulness, the interweaving of pirouettes and the better cutting and turning in the game for the marbles.” According to Vissers, Ajax can only be blamed for not being 6-0 or 8-2 against Besiktas. Playing football, on the other hand, was fun, according to the reporter. “This is football as it is intended for many, as entertainment for a full stadium that occasionally gasped, that sucked the lungs full for another aubade, for an ode to the team of Erik ten Hag, who as a conductor along the line swayed to the rhythm of the game.”
‘Strong Ajax makes Besiktas look like an average Eredivisie club’, headlines Fidelity. The newspaper saw Ajax play supreme in the atmospheric Johan Cruijff ArenA and take a big step towards wintering in the Champions League. “Ajax was so superior in the first half that the champion of Turkey also looked like an Eredivisie club of the caliber Cambuur or FC Groningen. With 72 percent possession and sixteen goals, a Champions League match in Amsterdam was rarely so one-sided. The 2-0 halftime score was a meager reflection of the balance of power.”