Ajax are out of the Champions League after they lost 1-0 to Atalanta Bergamo in Amsterdam. A late red card for Ryan Gravenberch proved crucial.
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Erik ten Hag was without Daley Blind, David Neres and Lassina Traore for the must-win final group game. 18-year-old Brian Brobbey started up front, while Lisandro Martinez replaced Blind at the back.
Ajax had a lot of possession but couldn’t create any chances against a well organised Atalanta, that had Marten de Roon and Hans Hateboer in the starting line-up. Brobbey went closest with a header, but the striker then went down with an injury and had to be replaced by Quincy Promes at half-time.
Ajax’s struggle continued after the break and Atalanta began to take control. Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Jurgen Ekkelenkamp eventually came on as Ajax went for all out attack.
Huntelaar was denied a penalty before Davy Klaassen got a guilt edged chance for Ajax. He was played in on goal after some slick passing but could only fire straight at Pierluigi Gollini with space in front of goal.
That miss would come back to haunt Ajax as Ryan Gravenberch was shown red for a very harsh second yellow card. The midfielder looked to protect the ball and was penalised for a hand into the face of Alejandro Gómez.
Agaist ten men, Atalanta struck the killer blow with Luis Muriel firing past Andre Onana to condemn Ajax to the Europa League.
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This game proves once again how awful Klaassen is. He may be good enough for Emmen or Bielefeld but nowhere near high level football. And this guy was called up by De Boer. This is a joke. They let go much better players like Eiting and spend 11 mln for this. Labyad is trash but nobody expect anything from him. All the middle with Gravenberch can only play simple pass back or in best case on the side, they are scared to take the ball dribble one player etc. Better just to play safe back to goalkeeper. No mevement without the ball. De Light, van de Beek, Ziyech and de Jong were never scared to play the ball. Awful performance. Go back to Eredivisie and beat Heracles 5:0.
the type of players in ajax now is not a winning players they lack confidence like the players that left tbh they deserved to be knocked out the way we lost home and away especially home against liverpool show that even the 2-2 against atlanta when you were 2-0 ahead show that the players totally lack confidence
ajax gave me a glimpse of hope back from 2017 when they reached the europa league final and semifinalist in 2019 but now this is the ajax team that used to come 3rd in cl group stage and i belive the next year they wont even be in 3rd position