‘It will be a big worry for everyone within Ajax’

Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 07:11• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 07:26

Ajax qualified for the eighth finals of the Champions League after four matches on Wednesday evening with a win at Borussia Dortmund. With three goals in the last twenty minutes, Erik ten Hag’s team won 1-3 at the German club, who played with ten men for a long time due to a red card for Mats Hummels. The newspapers in the Netherlands are full of praise for Ajax’s performance, although attention is also paid to the poorer first half of the team from Amsterdam.

‘Masterly in millions ball’, that’s what it says in large letters on the front page of telesport, the sports section of The Telegraph. Mike Verweij emphasizes Ajax’s great performance in the match report: after all, it has never happened before that Ajax, or any Dutch club for that matter, won the first four group matches in the Champions League. “That the victory came about much more difficult than it seemed necessary, everyone within Ajax will be a big worry.” The journalist of the newspaper emphasizes that for a long time Ajax was not a shadow of ‘the dream team that Borussia Dortmund had shown all corners of the Johan Cruijff ArenA (4-0)’. “With ten ball losses in thirty ball contacts halfway through the game, Ryan Gravenberch was a symbol of Mokum’s sloppiness. Although the Ajax player was certainly not the only one who acted far below his level.”

Thanks to goals from Dusan Tadic, Sébastien Haller and substitute Davy Klaassen, Ajax finally took full advantage of the surplus situation in the last twenty minutes and the 1-0 deficit was brushed away. “After the final whistle, it caused an explosion of joy in the away section and on the field. The team from Amsterdam did Dutch football and themselves a great service. The victory and the wintering ensure that Ajax has already earned 64 million euros. But even more importantly: the club makes huge advertising worldwide. And proves that attacking football pays,” Verweij said on Thursday.

This fight came when called
On the front page of AD Sports World from the General Newspaper it says in big letters ‘In!’ and above the match report is the headline: ‘Ajax has a place in the elite back’. “After two painful eliminations, Ajax is impressively reuniting with the European elite and can therefore look forward to at least another 12 million euros, on top of the more than 50 million that it has already collected,” writes Johan Inan. Colleague Sjoerd Mossou points out that the great resistance in Dortmund made the match so valuable for Ten Hag. “A fight like this was called for at this stage of the season, precisely because Ajax could afford a dent in the Champions League after three victories.”

“More than ever, the Amsterdam team was forced to find its own solution against a tireless opponent, and before halftime it almost never found that answer. It shows once again that the building that Ten Hag has been tinkering with for almost two years is certainly not yet finished,” Mossou writes in his analysis about the showdown. “It was already known that this Ajax can achieve an excellent level of play in Europe. But Borussia Dortmund proved once again how details at the highest level can make all the difference. The second round may have been impressively reached, but there is still a lot to improve on for Ajax on the way to the knockout phase. Above all, that is a blessing for Ten Hag and his team: it will force the team from Amsterdam to raise the bar even higher.”

Flashing lights on all attractions
“It was a funfair at Borussia Dortmund – Ajax, with flashing lights on all attractions, on an evening when the acclaimed Ajax proved that it can also win in the Champions League after a tactically strong, in the execution lesser display,” writes Willem Vissers of de Volkskrant. “But even then it ends well with the national champion. Destroyed opponent. Again. Won again, for the fourth time in a row. Already, at the beginning of November, Ajax has been placed for the eighth finals of the Champions League. That is a major achievement, interspersed with tens of millions of euros. That’s how it went: standing behind, not playing football well, staying calm, being patient. To win.”

Vissers saw how the time in the second half took too long for Dortmund’s ten men. “Ajax waited quietly until the exhaustion at Dortmund was there and struck mercilessly. Ajax to the eighth finals, again certainly of roughly seventy million euros this Champions League. But on Wednesday they danced for joy, the Ajax players.” John Grate of Fidelity saw that Ajax initially had a lot of trouble with the team that had so much fun in Amsterdam. “It wasn’t that crazy after all. Borussia didn’t want to go off again in their own yellow-black colored castle, with that unique atmosphere, and had rolled up their sleeves to make it a hot evening.”

“It led to a pot with a lot of struggle, a red card, a dubious penalty, great plays, many more mistakes, many opportunities and finally the apotheosis that was constantly in the air in the second half. (…) Because of the 1-3 victory, Ajax is already assured of wintering in the Champions League after four group matches. That didn’t work at all in the past two seasons. This unprecedented sporty luxury is accompanied by a substantial financial injection. Due to all the bonuses, the income from the European main tournament already rose to more than 65 million euros last night,” said Graat.