Ajax will once again be hoping to fulfill the whim of European team top scorer Tadic

Thursday 11 March 2021 at 6:00 pm• Stephan Curtis • Last updated: 19:32

It is up to Ajax to maintain the Dutch title in Europe, after PSV Eindhoven was defeated by Olympiacos in the previous round of the European League. Amsterdam FC twice defeated Lille OSC (1-2 and 1-2) and was linked to the Young Boys, Swiss champions, during the eighth final draw. Ajax and Young Boys will kick off Thursday evening at 6.55 pm at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Together with TOTO, we look forward to this game!

Ajax and Young Boys face each other for the third time in an official duel. In the 1987/88 season, the leader won the Dutch League in both matches with the Young Boys in the second European Cup, with a score of 1–0. A few months later, they lost the final match to KV Mechelen (1-0). The last Swiss opponent Ajax met in a European competition was FC Thun, who in the 2005/06 season was above the knee at home (2-0) and outside (2-4) by coach Danny Blind’s team at the time. Ajax has a strong balance against teams from the Alpine country anyway: out of the previous 14 encounters, he has won at least ten times (two draws and two defeats). Moreover, Ajax managed to maintain zero no fewer than nine times in those 14 duels.

Will Ajax succeed in not taking a hit against a Swiss team again? See a clean sheet quote in Amsterdam here.

Young Boys is only in the eighth European Championship final for the first time since the aforementioned second European Cup adventure in 1987/88. Before that, the 1960/61 season was the last time the team reached this round, so international success is rare for the Swiss opponent. On the other hand: In its league, the team has performed well in recent years. Young Boys became champions in the Swiss Premier League for the past three seasons thus breaking the dominance of FC Basel. Gerardo Siwan’s men now hope to take the next step in the Europa League. This ambition was reinforced in the previous round by the sudden elimination of Bayer Leverkusen from Peter Boss, who was coach of Ajax when the only remaining Dutch player in the 2016/17 season was active at this stage of the European League.

Can Ajax really hold back the Swiss advance in the first match? Watch the odds of winning the team from Amsterdam here.

Coach Eric Ten Hag will be hoping again on Thursday at a whim from Captain Dusan Tadic, because of course the coach cannot reach Sebastian Haller, the permanent “Eredivisie striker”. Since his debut with Ajax in the 2018/19 season, the Serbian has participated directly in 29 goals for Amsterdam in Europe in 38 matches (fifteen goals and fourteen assists). This is at least eleven times more than any other player in Ajax. On the other hand, the Swiss side is mainly wary of striker Jean-Pierre Nesme, who has already scored this season, including the preliminary rounds, six goals in the European League and has also managed to score twelve times in Switzerland. Premier League. So Ajax was warned.

Will Tadic and Nesma score again on Thursday? Watch the odds of achieving the club’s top scorer here.

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