Marciano Vink enjoyed the first half between Ajax and PSV, in which Noni Madueke in particular can charm the ESPN analyst. The PSV attacker claimed an absolute leading role in the first half of the game for the Johan Cruijff Scale with two goals. After two minutes of play, he moved in from the right side of the field to leave Remko Pasveer no chance in the short corner. After half an hour of play he was again accurate, this time with a shot with the right.
“I think they are very happy in Eindhoven with this super talent,” says Vink at ESPN. “This is exactly what I discussed beforehand. He has such a high speed, it is difficult for any defender to react. He has the choice to go inside and outside. That’s what makes him so dangerous. We saw Before the game he was already finishing these kind of balls. This is what we’re going to see all season. This talent is just very hard to stop.”
PSV and Ajax kept up a killer pace in the first company. On the stroke of half-time, Björn Kuipers sent Nicolás Tagliafico off the field in his farewell game with a red card after a hard tackle on André Ramalho. “It is intense, just like the matches between Ajax and PSV last season”, Arnold Bruggink notes. “We are close to the field, then you get that extra good. You get so little time, it goes so fast. Let’s be honest, in the Eredivisie we will see this very little. If you are at this level at the moment seeing the game, I really, really enjoy that.”
Kenneth Perez saw that a number of players struggled to keep up with the high tempo. “Nineteen or twenty players can handle it quite nicely, there are some players who find it difficult to play at this pace,” said Perez. “They clearly have trouble with it. It is a great match, but destroyed by the red card. PSV defends well, Ajax makes a beautiful goal that is rejected. Really down to the millimeter. This was a really fascinating match, until the red Map.” After fifteen minutes of play, Kuipers disallowed a goal by Sébastien Haller for offside.