A last minute penalty saw Ajax come away from PSV Eindhoven with a 1-1 draw.
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The pre-match talk in Eindhoven was dominated by Mohamed Ihattaren, who was dropped from the squad to face Ajax after a falling out with Roger Schmidt. The PSV boss decided to stick with the same eleven that defeated Olympiacos on Thursday.
Ajax, fresh from their win over Lille, were able to start with Daley Blind, while Sebastien Haller came back in up front.
Ajax started the game brightly and they went close through Devyne Rensch in the fifth minute. Jordan Teze also hit the ball against his own post, while Ryan Gravenberch also went close.
As the half wore on, PSV got more of the ball and Maarten Stekelenburg had to make a good stop to deny Denzel Dumfries.
In the 39th minute, Edson Alvarez brought down Donyell Malen on the edge of the box and Eran Zahavi curled a wonderful free-kick into the net to give PSV the lead.
At the break, Erik ten Hag decided to bring on Perr Schuurs for Rensch, with Jurrien Timber moving out to the right of defence. It didn’t have the desired effect with PSV still on top and they should have made it 2-0 when a corner eventually dropped to Olivier Boscagli at the back post, but he could not find the net.
David Neres and Mohammed Kudus both entered the game for Ajax but neither could turn the tide. PSV thought they had made it 2-0 through substitute Yorbe Vertessen, but the Belgian used his hand. Shortly afterwards, Stekelenburg had to be at full stretch to deny Phillip Max.
Ajax were lucky to escape a red card when a stamp by Lisandro Martinez on Zahavi was missed by VAR. Then in the 91st minute, Dumfries was punished for a handball and Tadic netted the equaliser from the penalty spot.
Tadic and Dumfries then had an altercation which threatened to spill into the locker rooms after full-time too.
The draw means Ajax remains six points clear at the top with a game in hand. PSV are second but AZ or Feyenoord could close the gap on them before the end of Sunday.
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This is not the first time I notice a certain bias against Ajax on this website. The summary of the match above is yet another example of such bias. Quote from the match summary “Dumfries was punished for a handball”. I mean really? He stopped the ball from going into the net. He was actually lucky to escape with a yellow card. The goal by PSV was also disallowed as it should have since the ball hit the arm of Vertessen. As for the “stamp” of Martinez on Zahavi it is obvious that it happened only because Zahavi kicked the ball to waste time as Martinez was moving forward to play a quick free-kick. But Football Oranje must have missed all that. Maybe time to find new more objective reporters.