PSV won the Johan Cruijff Scale for the twelfth time in its history on Saturday. Roger Schmidt’s team got off to a flying start against Ajax and, thanks to star Noni Madueke, took a double lead within half an hour. PSV was able to finish the job in the second half via Yorbe Vertessen and Mario Götze, after Ajax had ended up with ten men just before half-time due to a red card for Nicolás Tagliafico: 0-4.
The match could not have started better for PSV. In the third minute Madueke received the ball on the right wing, after which he started a dribble inside. After dodging Nicolás Tagliafico and Lisandro Martínez, Madueke shot the ball low into the short corner: 0-1. Ajax responded via Steven Berghuis, who headed to the crossbar from a cross by Dusan Tadic and via the fingertips of Joël Drommel.
After that, Ajax was stronger and saw a beautiful combination goal by Sébastien Haller rejected because of offside in the run-up to Tadic. A few minutes later, Klaassen headed just over from a Tagliafico cross. Within half an hour, Madueke struck again. This time the wing striker went outside in a quick counterattack at Martínez, to shoot in hard with the right: 0-2. Tagliafico then lost his head and came in hard on André Ramalho’s ankle, which immediately gave him a red card.
Shortly after the break, Madueke tried again, but this time his shot went just over the far post. Ajax kept looking for the attack and thus gave PSV a lot of space. Substitute Yorbe Vertessen served Van Ginkel, who was unable to pass Remko Pasveer in free position. Moments later, the Ajax goalkeeper also had a save in the house after a hard shot on the free Madueke. Moments later, PSV decided the game after all. Vertessen intercepted the ball at Vertessen, set up a one-two with Cody Gakpo, and rounded it off nicely with a dry low shot: 0-3. It got even worse for Ajax, because Götze made it 0-4 in a nice way, by first bypassing Lisandro Magallán.