Weghorst: ‘One of the nicer stadiums’
He had to wait a while, but against Fortuna Wout Weghorst finally made his Ajax debut. With five goals, the return of Davy Klaassen and the first minutes of the striker, it was a beautiful evening in the Johan Cruijff Arena. Only a debut goal was still missing. “But we’ll make up for that,” Weghorst told Ajax TV.
The summer signing feels good in Amsterdam. “I’m going full throttle right away. The feeling is good. There’s a lot of passion and experience in the technical staff. Every training session is about winning. I like that. Working that way is nice. I’m going to get to know everyone slowly. That will come. The first impressions are very good.”
Now on to Deventer, where Ajax obviously hopes to grab three points. “A victory like the one over Fortuna should be the standard. These are matches that you simply have to win. That is the only way to compete for the prizes. On Saturday we will play in one of the nicer stadiums in the Netherlands, so you look forward to that. Apart from that, it is only about one thing. That is winning that match again.”
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Edvardsen fit in time
Go Ahead Eagles trainer Paul Simonis can use Oliver Edvardsen again against Ajax. The Norwegian left winger is fit enough to play on Saturday. The Deventer team also has a number of players in the sickbay: Dean James, Robbin Weijenberg and Søren Tengstedt. This trio is struggling with various aches and pains.
Go Ahead Eagles triumphed last week on a visit to Sparta and wants to continue the good form. Also against Ajax, which has often had a hard time in De Adelaarshorst in recent seasons. “Winning always gives a good feeling. The victory over Sparta gives confidence. It also went hand in hand with good play. That is nice,” Simonis said on the own club website.
“We hope to continue in this vein, starting with Ajax. They haven’t played much football in recent weeks, so it was sometimes difficult to analyse them,” Simonis continues. “We watched the match against Fortuna well and saw a good match from Ajax.”
“You can clearly see the hand of the new coach when you look at agreements and patterns in defending and attacking. I do not rule out that Ajax will have a very good season. Individually, they are also doing very well. It promises to be a challenging, but beautiful match.”
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Watch out for crosses
Who to the numbers looks, sees that Go Ahead Eagles is high in the list with the number of accurate crosses per match. This is an average of 5.6. Only PSV provides more measured passes from the flanks (7.4). For Ajax, the dangerous crosses of the Deventer team are certainly something to take into account.
Also striking is the amount of touches of Go Ahead Eagles in the opposing sixteen. With the number of 151 touches, the team is in line with Ajax, AZ, FC Twente and sc Heerenveen. It even leaves Feyenoord below it. Simonis’ team often succeeds in pushing back the opponent. We hope of course that the roles will be reversed on Saturday.
Go Ahead Eagles and Ajax kick off on Saturday at 20:00 in De Adelaarshorst. The match will be led by Marc Nagtegaal, while Stan Teuben will be the VAR.
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