Wandering Ajax is being exposed by Twente with a tough week ahead

Ajax suffered a 3-1 defeat at FC Twente. The troubled team from Amsterdam have now not won three Premier League matches in a row, which is the worst start to the competition in 59 years for Ajax. The only win this season was booked more than a month ago (4-1 against Heracles Almelo).

The loss is extra painful, because Ajax has a tough week ahead of it. Maurice Steijn’s team will receive Olympique Marseille for the Europa League on Thursday and the home match against Feyenoord is scheduled for Sunday.

Afterwards, Ajax coach Maurice Steijn criticized the naivety of his team and called Ajax’s current situation ‘worrying’.

Twente, on the other hand, has won all four of its Premier League matches so far. Afterwards, coach Joseph Oosting praised his team’s good start. “That was the basis of the victory.”

Sem Steijn, whose father is Ajax’s coach, scored the second goal for Twente. He said that he was not busy with his father during the match, but that after his substitution it hurt him to see him like that on the sidelines at Ajax.

The match started spectacularly. After two minutes, Manfred Ugalde went alone to Jay Gorter. The Ajax goalkeeper managed to save the day. A minute later, Brian Brobbey was dangerous on behalf of Ajax. After a good individual action, the ball ended up in the side net via Twente goalkeeper Lars Unerstall.

This was followed by a Twente storm that was provided with extra force by Ajax itself. In the seventh minute, Daan Rots scored from the rebound, as Gorter released a shot from Michel Vlap.

Four minutes later, Sem Steijn hurt his father even more. Gorter didn’t look good again. This time he did not process Sadilek’s shot sufficiently, after which Ugalde was able to pass the ball to Steijn, who only had to tap it in.

After these early goals, Twente continued to improve. Ajax gave it a lot of space to play football and made use of it. There were even more exciting moments in front of the Amsterdam goal, including Steijn’s shot against the crossbar.

Where Twente did not score, Ajax did. Out of nowhere, in the 35th minute. Left back Borna Sosa passed the ball to Brobbey, who crawled in front of his man and tapped in.

After that, things didn’t go much better for Ajax. Twente claimed a penalty after Vlap was brought down by Benjamin Tahirovic. Referee Danny Makkelie did not award a penalty, so the difference at halftime was still one goal.

Although the second half started with a great chance for Twente players Vlap and Ugalde, Ajax became slightly more dominant. Brobbey was threatening several times, but there was no real conviction in the finish.

Twente, where Carel Eiting made his debut, deliberately retreated, but also started playing a bit sloppier football. It helped that Ajax itself was not sharp, so the lead could still be increased in the 80th minute.

Substitute Branco van den Boomen was sleeping, after which Naci Ünüvar went alone to Ajax’s goal. The Ajax loanee did not fail and made it 3-1. Twente subsequently no longer ran into problems against the weak Ajax.