On Tuesday night Ajax u19 played one of their most noteworthy games of the season. The game was all level up until the 72nd minute when all hell broke loose. In the end, the 8 remaining Ajax players lost with 2-0.
FC Groningen started the game with a defensive approach. They were waiting for their chances to counter, and those came. Three massive chances weren’t enough for Groningen to take the lead. The crossbar (2 x) and Reiziger saved Ajax.
Then in the second half, it became quite hostile. FC Groningen got stuck in and played aggressively, to the disdain of the Ajax players. The players started voicing their protests against these tackles to the referee who didn’t want to hear any of it. Sallah-Edine and Llansana both got a second yellow card for protesting in the space of two minutes. Especially the reasoning for the latter was bizarre. The captain of Ajax yelled ‘Come on, ref!’ after another bone-crunching tackle by Groningen and got sent off for it. Just before full-time Youri Regeer got a straight red card for a foul. Also one of the assistants of Ajax manager Heitinga got sent off for complaints.
Eight versus eleven was too much for the Ajacieden and they conceded two goals in the last 5 minutes of the game. Hamelink scored the 1-0 and Suslov decided the match with a penalty; 2-0.
Line-up Ajax O19:
Reiziger; Van Gelderen, Kasanwirjo, Musampa, Salah-Eddine; Llansana, Taylor, Regeer; Frei, De Waal, Ünüvar.
Subs:: Raatsie, Douglas, Warmerdam, Pynadath, Rasmussen, Dostanic, Van der Sloot.