Ajax awaits the first meeting with Ludogorets in the play-offs of the Europa League on Thursday. The Bulgarian top club has started the new season with two losses from the first five league matches. Menno Koch, former player of (Young) PSV, FC Utrecht and NAC Breda, has been under contract with CSKA Sofia since 2021 and played against the reigning national champion of Bulgaria a week and a half ago.
By Jordi Tomasowa
Koch met Ludogorets on August 13 with CSKA Sofia in a league match. The center defender suffered a 3-0 defeat in Razgrad with his team. According to Koch, a better result was not possible either. “We are currently going through a messy phase. The trainer has just been fired, this was the second game under his successor. The match against Ludogorets actually came at the worst possible time for us.”
Koch is in his third season with CSKA Sofia, title competitor of Ludogorets.
Ludogorets narrowly defeated Koch’s CSKA Sofia in the Bulgarian title race last season. At the end of the competition the Eagles only one point more. “Ludogorets has by far the biggest budget if you compare it to the other clubs in the Parva Liga. They always play well-groomed football with position play from the back, although I must say that since this season they play more directly by often putting a long ball behind the opponent’s last line.
In Koch’s eyes, captain Kiril Despodov is ‘by far the most dangerous man’ on Ludogorets’ side. “He is a right winger, always scores a lot of goals and often gives assists. He has a very good kick, so Ludogorets is very dangerous with corner kicks and free kicks. With Despodov and Bernard Tekpetey they have two fast wing forwards and Rwan Seco is their new striker, a physically strong Brazilian who acts as a target man.”
According to Koch, there are plenty of opportunities for Ajax, since Ludogorets did not start the new season in Bulgaria too energetically. “They lost their first league game against Krumovgrad, while last weekend Cherno More, the current leader and number five of last season, was 1-0 too strong. I have the feeling that they are not in their very best phase either, but I don’t think Ajax is really swinging yet either.”
The 29-year-old from Brabant describes Ludogorets as a ‘dangerous team’, but nevertheless designates the team from Amsterdam as the rightful favourite. “If Ajax reaches its level, they should certainly be able to win. Ludogorets is still searching, for example, I often saw different guys playing in the back. At the start of the season, their focus is mainly on the European preliminary rounds. At home, Ludogorets is a lot stronger than during away games, so if Ajax manages to achieve a good result on Thursday, it will be well on its way.”
Despodov, 38-time international from Bulgaria and captain of Ludogorets, is the most dangerous man with Ajax’s opponent in Koch’s eyes.
“Ajax is a team that wants to play very well-groomed football and Ludogorets usually do too,” Koch continues. “If you have two teams that want to play football, you often get fairly open matches. That is why I also expect that Ajax will have many opportunities to score in Bulgaria. Whether it can be a bit of a cauldron at Ludogorets? Haha, no, that’s okay. Razgrad is actually really a hole. They do have some fans, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to our supporters, for example. In Bulgaria, Ludogorets is mainly seen as a buying club without history.”
The first duel between Ludogorets and Ajax starts on Thursday evening at 8 p.m. in the Huvepharma Arena and can be seen live on RTL 7. The return in the Johan Cruijff ArenA is scheduled for next Thursday. If the team from Amsterdam survives the diptych with the Bulgarian top club, the number three of the last Eredivisie season will immediately qualify for the group stage of the Europa League.