Benfica-Ajax, will Haller be able to keep up the goalscoring rhythm?

Where is Sébastien Haller’s scoring ceiling? The Ivorian international forward, at the top of the Champions League scoring chart, is the revelation of Ajax Amsterdam, before the first leg of the round of 16 match against Benfica on Wednesday in Lisbon (8:00 p.m. GMT).

In fact, it is the French-born striker’s first participation in the most prestigious European competition.

With ten goals this season, including a poker in one match, the 27-year-old outclasses established sluggers Robert Lewandowski (9) and Mohamed Salah (8), putting him in the spotlight ahead of the round of 16 tie.

Haller even emulated a Cristiano Ronaldo record by becoming only the second player to score in each of six group stage matches.

“Before the competition, if they had asked me if I was going to score so many goals, I would have said no,” admitted the striker on Sunday on the club’s television channel.

Under the impulse of his goals, Ajax finished at the head of his key, with six victories in as many games, a plenary session that makes Amsterdam dream of a beautiful epic in the European spring.

An end of the course that could be a fairy tale for the striker, who maintains the scoring rhythm in the domestic championship.

In the match of the 22nd round of the Eredivisie, on February 13 against Twente, the 1.90-meter colossus made people talk about him by signing a hat-trick in Ajax’s 5-0 win.

The scorer trained in the French Auxerre adds 16 goals in 20 games in the Dutch championship. And six goal passes.

In 51 games played for Ajax since his arrival in January 2021, Haller has scored 41 goals.

Some numbers that would have allowed the French team. Between 2010 and 2016, the player born in Ris-Orangis, on the outskirts of Paris, wore the ‘Bleu’ jersey in lower categories, along with other talents such as Presnel Kimpembe, Adrien Rabiot and Lucas Hernandez.

But the late-blooming footballer chose to defend the colors of his mother’s country of origin, Ivory Coast. With the ‘Elephants’ he will play a friendly against France on March 25 in Marseille.

Trained at AJ Auxerre, he went through Utrecht (2015-17), Frankfurt (2017-19) and West Ham (2019-20).

Flattery rains down on him everywhere. Starting with his coach at Ajax Erik ten Hag, who also coached him at Utrecht: “I don’t want to compare him to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but he is just as great and has his technical and athletic qualities.”

“Given its class, I’m not surprised that (other clubs) are interested,” Ten Hag declared on the Ajax page. “All I can say is that it will cost dearly.”

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, who would have put their eyes on the striker, already know that they will have to scratch their pockets.

– Possible lineups

Benfica: Vlachodimos – Lázaro, Vertonghen, Otamendi, Grimaldo – Weigl, João Mário, Taarabt, Paulo Bernardo – Rafa Silva, Darwin Núñez. DT: Nélson Verissimo.

Ajax: Pasveer – Mazraoui, Timber, Lisandro Martínez, Blind – Edson Álvarez, Berghuis, Klaassen – Antony, Haller, Tadic. DT: Erik ten Hag.

Árbitro: Slavco Vincic (SVN)

bnl / ah / chc / iga / mcd

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