Ajax Amsterdam will visit the Santiago Bernabeu home of Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday (5/3). Ajax Players need to watch out during their upcoming match with El Real.
Losing 1-2 at the first meeting, Ajax Amsterdam must win by a difference of two goals, or win one goal but not 1-0 and 2-1, in order to qualify for the next round.
For the game later, there are at least six Ajax players who must be extra careful when dueling with Real Madrid players. This is related to the collection of cards and accumulated penalties that are in sight.
Those six players will miss the first match of the last eight, if Ajax qualifies, if they get a yellow card in the match against Madrid. Therefore, a careful play need to be delivered by Ajax.
Interestingly, the problem is that the six players are the main Ajax players who were always played including the first meeting. Four are main Ajax defenders – they are Daley Blind, Matthijs De Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, and Nicolas Tagliafico. If one of the main quartets of the back line was absent, Ajax’s strength would certainly drop dramatically.
The other two players who were also threatened with card accumulation penalties were the midfielders from Morocco / Dutch, Hakim Ziyech, and the main midfielder, Donny Van de Beek.
However, Ajax can stay little calm down due to their minimal number of yellow cards in the first match. At the first meeting they only got one yellow card, which is, Hakim Ziyech. On the other hand, Real Madrid were three – Sergion Ramos, Sergio Reguilon and Lucas Vazquez.
The yellow card received by Sergio Ramos then forced him to miss the second match tonight. Quoted from Erik Ten Hag, manager of Ajax, about the Real Madrid captain, “Missing Sergio Ramos is a loss for Madrid in this game, tactically and mentally. The absence of Ramos certainly does not make them stronger.”
He added, “Our players have big ambitions, we will compete to score goals. This team always takes the initiative in every game.” It would be an interesting showdown between two big European clubs with story of rivalries.
ASL
