Ajax and PSV share the points in a 1-1 draw
Ajax and PSV played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday in the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam. Steven Berghuis gave the home side the lead before Luuk de Jong equalized.
Ajax manager John van ’t Schip gave Jordan Henderson his first start. Josip Sutalo passed a fitness test to start the match. The away side started the game with Ismael Saibari. The midfielder only returned from the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday after getting knocked out by Morocco. A reason for the start was that midfielders Joey Veerman and Malik Tillman were injured.
The first chance of the match fell to the Amsterdammers after 12 minutes. Kristian Hlynsson nodded the ball into the path of Steven Bergwijn, who pulled his shot wide from inside the box.
Van ’t Schip’s side took the lead in the 19th minute. Steven Berghuis played a pass to Brian Brobbey before continuing his run and receiving a pass from Brobbey. The experienced midfielder made no mistake with his shot, smashing it into the far corner.
The league leaders equalized after 34 minutes played. Hirving Lozano played the ball on to Ismael Saibari, who volleyed a ball into the box for Luuk de Jong, who hooked the ball into the far corner to score his 18th goal of the season and his tenth against Ajax. Only Cor van der Gijp has scored more against the Amsterdammers.
De Jong nearly got his second goal of the match in the 68th minute when he headed a corner taken by Lozano onto the crossbar.
It was a tale of missed chances by the striker when Brobbey missed a big opportunity a few minutes later. Berghuis lobbed the ball over the defence to the striker, leaving him one on one with plenty of space to run into. But his poor control slowed him down before he volleyed his attempt wide of the goal.
Brobbey nearly redeemed himself with what could have been his second assist of the match when he laid the ball off to Kenneth Taylor in the box. However, Taylor could not get his body over the ball, sending his shot flying over the goal.
Lozano’s corners proved to be a formidable weapon for PSV and almost resulted in Peter Bosz’s side snatching a winner right before the end of the match. Diant Ramaj came out of his goal to punch the ball away but was beaten to it by Andre Ramalho. Ramaj will have been relieved to see Ramalho’s header go wide of the goal.
The Ajax supporters applauded their team at the final whistle. They are fifth in the league table with a six-point gap to FC Twente in third place and even with AZ on points. PSV are now thirteen points clear at the top of the table ahead of Feyenoord, who face AZ away on Sunday.
PSV face relegation battlers FC Volendam next weekend, with Ajax traveling to Heerenveen.
