Ajax was eliminated on Thursday evening in the intermediate round of the Europa League. John Heitinga’s team fell far short against 1. FC Union Berlin, partly because goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli made a hopeless blunder on a bet by Josip Juranovic. Before that, Robin Knoche had scored for Union with a penalty, making it 2-0 at halftime. Mohammed Kudus immediately brought back the tension in the second half, but Ajax was unable to recover after a quick goal from Danilho Doekhi: 3-1. The frustrations at Ajax mounted enormously in injury time and Edson Álvarez picked up two yellow cards within seconds.
Heitinga announced in advance that Ajax would have to do things differently than in Amsterdam, where the first leg had ended in 0-0. The coach changed course with a 3-4-3 formation. Owen Wijndal became a child of the bill, Calvin Bassey took his place. Álvarez, previously a doubtful case, turned out to be fit enough to start. Union again started with Doekhi and Sheraldo Becker in the base. There was one change compared to the first leg: Morten Thorsby, ex-midfielder of sc Heerenveen, gave up his place to Janik Haberer.
Ajax fell behind early. In the twentieth minute, Calvin Bassey unfortunately received a header from his direct opponent Doekhi. The Spanish referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea was called aside by the VAR and, after watching many replays, ruled that Bassey’s hand was punishable: penalty for Union. That was shot in by Knoche with the necessary effort. Rulli was in the right corner and tapped the ball against the inside of the post, not enough to prevent a hit.
After that a strong phase of Ajax started, in which danger was created several times. Álvarez saw a header tipped out of the corner; Moments later, Kudus was outlawed to finish a low cross from Devyne Rensch, but turned out to be offside. In addition, Kudus’ heel ball went wide. On the other side, things went hopelessly wrong again for Ajax just before the break. Rulli blundered on a sustainable shot from seventeen meters from Juranovic: 2-0.
Immediately after the break, Ajax received a huge boost thanks to Kudus, who touched a low cross from Steven Bergwijn just enough to walk in the ball: 2-1. The optimism on the Amsterdam side was very short-lived: in the fiftieth minute, Doekhi won with a corner kick from Timber, after which the ex-Vitessenaar headed in: 3-1. Ajax continued to look for an attack and Davy Klaassen claimed to have been touched after shielding the ball, but was not awarded a penalty. In the sixtieth minute, the same Klaassen put the ball incomparably ready for Kudus with a heel ball, who completely messed up the mega chance by shooting wide.