Ajax does not have to take Napoli star player Victor Osimhen into account on Tuesday evening in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The 23-year-old striker, who scored eighteen times in 32 games last season, did not recover in time from his hamstring injury and therefore did not travel with his team to Amsterdam on Monday. The Nigerian was injured in the home game against Liverpool (4-1) and has been watching ever since.
There is a good chance that Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti will make up for the absence of his striker with Giacomo Raspadori. The 22-year-old Italian has been preferred over competitor Giovanni Simeone since Osimhen’s injury, but has only been able to score twice in nine games so far this season. Spalletti expects a difficult match against Ajax on Tuesday evening, the trainer indicated on Monday at the press conference. “As a team we are very similar. We both like to build up and play combination football.”
“Ajax also has an alternative with the long ball, where players can be reached with physical impact,” says the Italian. Napoli must find a solution for that, the coach indicates. Spalletti is looking forward to Tuesday evening. “match in a beautiful stadium against a fantastic club. We can only grow by playing matches like this. If we get our top form, these two matches against Ajax can be decisive.” The trainer points out a small advantage for the team from Amsterdam: “This opponent has young and strong players with perhaps a little more Champions League experience than us.”
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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
The Georgian Shota Arveladze, who scored no less than 72 times in 125 matches for Ajax between 1997 and 2001 and also has a past at AZ, warns the team from Amsterdam in The Telegraph for his compatriot Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Arveladze even indicates that the Napoli attacker was offered to Ajax in the last winter transfer window. “But the time was too short and the price of fifteen million euros too high. Ajax wanted to pay nine to twelve million euros. In the end, Napoli bought him for ten million euros. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
The former player of Ajax and AZ is full of praise for Kvaratskhelia. “The class is dripping in Khvicha from. He is big, strong, two-legged and very complete. What I find special is that it is good in small and large spaces. Of course, sometimes things go wrong, but all his decisions in the field are right. I can’t remember a wrong choice. Kvaratskhelia reads the game, he is a killer. He comes to the ball and kills.”