On Tuesday evening Ajax can take an important step towards the big goal of this European season: to spend the winter in the Champions League. After the 1-5 victory over Sporting Portugal, the meeting with Besiktas awaits in their own Johan Cruijff ArenA. The Turkish champion traveled to Amsterdam badly battered, making the team of trainer Erik ten Hag the favorite on paper. The probable position of Ajax can largely be guessed after Monday’s press conference.
Ajax could not have started the Champions League season better. Two weeks ago, people in Amsterdam feared a tough evening visiting Sporting Portugal. However, Ajax turned out to be a size too big for the club from Lisbon and won with convincing numbers. Sébastien Haller and Antony were the big stars of the evening. Haller was even named Player of the Week in the billion dollar ball for his four goals. The big victory over the champion of Portugal is a confirmation for Ajax that the good form is present. That good line has been continued in the Eredivisie in recent weeks, in which it was convincingly settled with SC Cambuur (9-0), Fortuna Sittard (0-5) and FC Groningen (3-0). More good news for Ten Hag was the return of Mohammed Kudus after a months-long absence, while Davy Klaassen is also fit again.
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Where there is no problem for Ajax, the problems are great at Besiktas. Trainer Sergen Yalçin has to miss a large number of players due to injuries. Miralem Pjanic, Welinton Souza, Domagoj Vida, Atiba Hutchinson, Mehmet Topal, Necip Uysal, Rachid Ghezzal, Kevin N’Koudou, Alex Teixeira, Cyle Larin and Javier Montero are not fit and therefore were left behind in Istanbul. Despite the personnel problems, Ten Hag does not expect an easy victory. “There are no easy matches in the Champions League,” he emphasized at the press conference on Monday afternoon. “I have looked at the squad and it is very large. They have some injuries, but they are confident and so are we.” Besiktas started the group stage of the Champions League with a 1-2 loss against Borussia Dortmund. The reigning champion is also not performing optimally in the Turkish league; last Friday, Altay proved too strong with 2-1. With fourteen points from seven games, Besiktas is third in the Süper Lig.
“We always talk about the missing players, but I think it would be better if we talk about the players who are there,” Besiktas coach Yalçin said at the press conference, quoted by Football International. “Of course it is an unfortunate situation that we are missing a lot of players. Our advantage is that we have a lot of young players who are going to play at this level for the first time. For them it is a great opportunity to play on this podium and in this stadium against one of to play the strongest teams in the league and gain experience,” said Yalçin. “Those who play can grab their chance. That’s the positive thing about this story. It’s a fantastic experience for these players to play in such a tournament.”
Probable Ajax setup
André Onana and Maarten Stekelenburg are still missing from Ajax. Onana has to wait more than a month before he can return to action after his suspension from November 4, Stekelenburg is still recovering from an injury. Just like against Sporting, Remko Pasveer will therefore defend the goal against Besiktas tonight from 6.45 pm, while Jay Gorter takes place on the bench as second choice.
Noussair Mazraoui is expected in the right-back position. The Moroccan international is in good form and showed that once again against FC Groningen on Saturday evening. He showed himself in an attacking way and determined the final score at 3-0 with a nice volley. He scored on a pass from Lisandro Martínez, who will form the heart of the defence, together with Jurriën Timber. The latter makes a stable impression, despite being only twenty years old. Daley Blind, who is expected to be preferred to Nicolás Tagliafico in the left back position on Tuesday, praised the Ajax talent at the press conference.
Blind said he wasn’t surprised by what Timber showed. “I think it’s very clever what Jurriën puts on the mat. He’s been doing that since he joined the first team. He immediately picked up an upward trend and since then he has been developing very quickly. Indeed, he has a lot of calm on the ball and is very strong defensively,” said Blind, who believes Timber is further than when he was his age. “I had some more ups and downs at that age. He is more stable than I was at the time. I still had some dips at the beginning of my career. I hope Jurriën can continue this line and that he remains so stoic in everything .”
The probable position of Ajax according to Algemeen Dagblad.
In midfield, Ryan Gravenbech and Edson Álvarez are sure of their place on Tuesday evening. The big question is who can fill the role of attacking midfielder: Steven Berghuis or Davy Klaassen. The latter returned from the Dutch national team injured and was replaced in recent weeks by Berghuis, who made a good impression in that position. During the press moment on Monday, Ten Hag was asked whether he can still get around Berghuis with good decency, as the attacker can provide excellent figures. In five games, he was good for three goals and five assists. “That could be, yes. I can get around everyone. You choose the team with which you have the best chance of winning. That has to be at the top. The team is always more important than the individual,” the trainer made clear.
Ronald de Boer expressed the expectation on Sunday evening that Berghuis will have to settle for a place on the bench. “Klaassen is higher in the hierarchy than Berghuis, in my view,” said De Boer on Sunday evening Rondo. “I think this man is just going to play: Klaassen. Antony is definitely not going out. He (Klaassen, ed.) did a great job”, De Boer referred to the period before Klaassen returned from the Dutch national team injured. Marco van Basten, who, like table mates Ruud Gullit and Jan van Halst, expressed the expectation that Klaassen will start, thinks that Berghuis fills in the number ten position in an unusual way. “Berghuis has a bit of a strange way of playing on ten, I must say. You can see that he is really searching. You have to pay a lot of attention to your striker and I don’t see him doing that at all.” It General Newspaper expects De Boer and the other diners to be wrong. The newspaper thinks that Klaassen has to stop for a while.
Ten Hag did not want to reveal who the choice falls on Monday, but the newspaper expects Berghuis to be able to show it from the kick-off. “Davy has been out for a few weeks. But not so long that it is alarming. He played three games in one week for the Dutch national team about three weeks ago. So that cannot be completely gone. I certainly think that he can start,” said the trainer. Does it come down to a choice between Berghuis and Klaassen? “Yes, in the end we will have to make choices, that’s right. I’m pretty good at that.” The choices at the forefront seem to be set with Antony, Sébastien Haller and Dusan Tadic.
Probable Ajax line-up: feather; Mazraoui, Timber, Martinez, Blind; Álvarez, Berghuis, Gravenberch; Anthony, Haller, Tadic.