Ajax can take a giant step towards wintering in the Champions League on Tuesday evening. After the stunning 4-0 victory over Rangers, this time the ailing Liverpool is the opponent at Anfield. The English top club is certainly not in its best shape, while Ajax has remained clear in the last seven official matches and kept a clean sheet five times. Last weekend, sc Heerenveen was put on the rack with 5-0. In contrast to that match, Alfred Schreuder probably makes one change.
Liverpool has had a lousy start to the season, lost points against Fulham and Crystal Palace, among others, and was swept off the mat in the first half by Napoli during the first round in the Champions League (4-1). Nevertheless, Schreuder does not think that his team is the favourite. “The intensity of the Premier League is many times higher than that of the Eredivisie,” he said during the press conference on Monday. “But we are Ajax and the club has shown in Europe in recent years that it can compete at this level. Showing that with all the new players is a great challenge. We are ambitious.”
The Ajax trainer probably goes back to his starting eleven in the won home match against Rangers. That means that Steven Berghuis, who was passed for Davy Klaassen against Heerenveen, has his place in the team back. In rush hour Mohammed Kudus again gets the chance over Brian Brobbey, according to the General Newspaper. The Ghanaian proved his worth against both Rangers and Heerenveen with three hits. Schreuder already indicated that he had a more agile striker with Kudus against the often physically strong center defenders.
Schreuder believes that his team should play with guts, as it also happened against Rangers. The team from Amsterdam grabbed the Scots by the throat from the first minute. Only then, according to the coach, it is possible to leave Liverpool with a result. “We also want to be good and try to play our own game by being good at the ball. For that we will have to show courage. That is the key word. If we have that, we have a chance and otherwise it will be difficult, because then they come into the duels continuously. And then Liverpool is much stronger.”
Probable Ajax line-up: feather; Rensch, Timber, Bassey, Blind; Taylor, Alvarez, Berghuis; Tadic, Kudus, Mountain Wine