On May 5, 2019, Willem II and Ajax kicked off in a packed Kuip for the hundreds first edition of the TOTO KNVB cup final. 714 days later Ajax is again at the kick-off of the final of the cup tournament, but otherwise everything is different. Another opponent, an empty Kuip and hardly any festivities afterwards, regardless of the result. Nevertheless, the tension will be palpable in Arnhem and Amsterdam on Sunday, just before six o’clock. A final in the new normal is still a final. Together with TOTO we look ahead to the final battle of the TOTO KNVB cup tournament.
One road to the final is not the other. On the way to De Kuip, Vitesse settled with Willem II, ADO Den Haag, Excelsior and VVV-Venlo, while Ajax defeated FC Utrecht, AZ, PSV and sc Heerenveen on the way to the final. This makes Ajax the first team to only meet Eredivisie teams on the way to the final of the TOTO KNVB cup final since Feyenoord in 2015/16, and in total the tenth time that a cup finalist only met Eredivision teams on the way to the final. Will Ajax continue its series of victories against high-ranking Eredivisie teams in the final against Vitesse?
Will Ajax also beat Vitesse in the hunt for the pinecone? View the odds for a cup victory for the team from Amsterdam here!
Vitesse and Ajax met each other nine times before in the cup tournament. The Arnhem team were three times too strong for the team from Amsterdam, while Ajax ran away with a victory six times. Often ninety minutes were enough for the teams to distance themselves from each other. Only one of the nine TOTO KNVB cup matches between Vitesse and Ajax ended in an extension: on January 26, 2001, Vitesse won 2-1 in Amsterdam after an extension with the then Golden Goal rule. Ajax seemed to pull that match over for a long time, but after Matthew Amoah scored 1-1 in the 84th minute, it was substitute Gert Claessens who decided the match. Later cup meetings between these two teams also recorded special results. For example, Ajax was 4-0 too strong in the quarterfinals of 2013, while Vitesse managed to win 4-0 against the team from Amsterdam in the fourth round of the tournament in 2014. The most recent cup match between these teams was the quarter final in 2020, where Ajax won 0-3 in Arnhem.
Does this cup meeting between Vitesse and Ajax also yield at least three hits? View the quotation here!
The final against Ajax will be extra special for Riechedly Bazoer. The midfielder was one of the well-known frogs in the Amsterdam wheelbarrow a few years ago and seems to really deliver on his promise at Vitesse this season. Bazoer always stands out in matches between Vitesse and Ajax. He scored four times in five duels between Vitesse and Ajax. Twice for Ajax against his current employer and twice the other way around. These were the last two goals that the Arnhem team made against Ajax. Earlier this season, the emotions at Bazoer ran fairly high in the Johan Cruijff Arena.
Is he keeping a cool head this time? View the odds for a goal or a red card from Riechedly Bazoer here.
Talk about hotheads. Oussama Tannane and Dusan Tadic also play soccer now and then more with the heart than with the mind. This often results in great moments. Think of Tadic’s flaming shot in the football fight with FC Utrecht or Tannane’s flare in the semi-final against VVV. No player scored more goals and assists in the TOTO KNVB Cup this season than Tadic; five in total, three goals and two assists (just like Benjamin Nygren). Tannane is one of the four players who accounted for four cup goals or assists this season (one goal and three assists). It promises to be a wonderful fight.
Are these two players also on edge in the final? View the routing for a goal by Tadic or Tannane here!
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