Perhaps there’s no greater indicator of Ajax’s rapid fall from grace than their presence in the knockout play-off round of UEFA’s third-tier Europa Conference League. The Dutch giants enter this competition for the first time ever after finishing third in their Europa League group, and with no other chances of silverware remaining on the table, this presents their best chance of salvaging any joy from an otherwise miserable campaign.
They come into this clash after suffering their first Eredivisie loss under new manager John van ‘t Schip (W9, D2), a 3-2 defeat away to Heerenveen on Sunday, and will now enjoy two competitive home games in four days. But the support of the Johan Cruyff ArenA behind them is far from a guarantee of victory when considering that Ajax have won just two of their last nine European home games (D2, L5) as well as drawing two of their last three domestic home games (W1).
As a result, Norwegian champions Bodø/Glimt may travel to Amsterdam for their inaugural H2H meeting confident of springing another famous European upset. Kjetil Knutsen’s men may have some rust to shake off if they’re to make that dream a reality, as the last time the Yellow Horde were in competitive action was in December on matchday six of the Europa Conference League.
A second-place finish in their group ensured that Bodø are alive at this stage of this competition for the third season running. They’ll certainly be looking for an improvement on last year’s elimination at this stage against Lech Poznań, and they can at least take heart from their two previous trips to face Dutch opposition, neither of which ended in defeat (D2).
Players to watch: Ajax striker Chuba Akpom returned to fitness with a goal off the bench at the weekend, and he ought to be confident of another should he be restored to the starting XI, having scored three times in his side’s last two European matches (W1, L1). With former talisman Amahl Pellegrino sold over the winter, the visitors will be looking to Tobias Gulliksen to fill the void after he scored in two of their three most recent friendlies.
Hot stat: Ajax’s last 12 competitive matches saw both teams score on the day, whilst nine of those 12 produced over 3.5 total goals.
