A brilliant strike from Riechedly Bazoer saw Ajax come from behind to beat Feyenoord 2-1 in the Amsterdam Arena.
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The home side began the game brightly and took the game to Feyenoord, but it was the Rotterdam side who broke the deadlock on 13 minutes with Jens Toornstra firing a low strike into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
The lead lasted less than ten minutes before Amin Younes jinked his way past two challenges in the box and fired into the net off the post from a tight angle.
Both sides then played at a frantic tempo and the chances came thick and fast with Jasper Cillessen having to save well from Tonny Vilhena twice, while Sven van Beek saw a header cleared off the line. For Ajax, Anwar El Ghazi was presented a good chance when he latched onto Eric Botteghin’s poor backpass, but he couldn’t finish after rounding Kenneth Vermeer.
The pace of the game slowed in the second half understandably and Ajax began to take charge, although chances were few and far between. Then with 25 minutes Riechedly Bazoer settled the tie by sending a curling strike into the top corner from range with the outside of his boot. A terrific strike from the midfielder which left Vermeer rooted to his spot as it flew into the net off the post.
Minutes later Ajax could have made it 3-1 from the penalty spot after Vermeer brought down Davy Klaassen, but Nemanja Gudelj smashed his spot kick over the bar. Feyenoord pushed for an equaliser, but Ajax held on to temporarily return to the top of the table.
Its another defeat for Feyenoord which sees them drop to fourth, but Giovanni van Bronckhorst will be encouraged by a more determined performance from his players.
I hate losing and there are no moral victories. That being said, this was the best game Feyenoord has played in weeks. The chances were there to tie it up or win. In the 3 games vs Ajax this year we went 1-1-1, not bad overall. There is no talent gap between the 2 clubs anymore, even though the points say otherwise. Not true vs. PSV.
Now we need to get back into the win column. A struggling Zwolle is next.