YB breaks apart in the closing minutes

(sda) Up to ten minutes before the end of the game, the Swiss champions had received a playful rubdown in Amsterdam, but pulled themselves out of the affair considerably. Only a dropout of the substitute Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu opened Ajax the important 2-0, which YB would have put under great pressure with regard to the second leg in Bern. Substitute Brian Brobbey robbed the last hopes of a Bernese coup in the second leg in the third minute of stoppage time with the 3-0. “Ajax showed us the limits today,” YB coach Gerardo Seoane told Swiss TV SRF after the game.

His team had been shown in the first minutes of the game in the Johan Cruyff Arena what to expect in the next 90 minutes. Ajax let the ball run well and launched its fast and dribbling outside players again and again into the depths. For the Bern defensive ranks this meant a lot of running effort, YB paid tribute to him in the final minutes. The circumstances that led to the clear, albeit deserved defeat, are annoying.

Ajax ‘1-0 through Davy Klaassen after one hour was initiated by Cedric Zesiger’s foot and Fabian Lustenberger’s chest, before the 2-0 in the 82nd minute, substitute Moumi Ngamaleu refused to work. The 26-year-old Cameroonian stopped dead in a pass from Cedric Zesiger, seconds later Ajax captain Dusan Tadic’s deal struck behind Guillaume Faivre. And so YB goes into the second leg with an almost hopeless starting position instead of an astonishingly good one.

It is only thanks to goalie Guillaume Faivre that the mortgage in Wankdorf will not be even greater. The 34-year-old from Neuchâtel, who replaced the regular goalkeeper David von Ballmoos, who suffered from a concussion, was the man from the very beginning. Faivre exuded calm in his actions and contributed with words to the fact that the people in front of him controlled the opponent well in the meantime. Again and again his instructions could be heard in the closed and practically empty Johan Cruyff Arena. Faivre showed his greatest act six minutes after the break when he was able to parry an Edson Alvarez header from a few meters.

Because the Dutch were more concerned about building up the ball than Leverkusen did in the sixteenth finals, the guest on the offensive hardly got into outnumbered situations. As a rule, the attackers Meschack Elia and Jean-Pierre Nsame were on their own at the front, so there was no danger from this. The only scene in the Ajax penalty area was when full-back Silvan Hefti was able to move up in the 6th minute and Christian Fassnacht found Nsame with a cross.

Ajax Amsterdam – Young Boys 3:0 (0:0)

SR Guide (ITA). – Tore: 62. Klaassen 1: 0. 82. Tadic 2: 0. 92. Brobbey 3: 0.

Ajax Amsterdam: Stekelenburg; Rensch (67. Schuurs), Timber, Martinez, Tagliafico; Alvarez, Klaassen, Gravenberch; Antony (67. Idrissi), Tadic, Neres (83. Brobbey).

Young Boys: Faivre; Hefti, Camara (34. Zesiger), Lustenberger, Lefort; Fassnacht (85th Siebatcheu), Lauper (71st Sierro), Aebischer, Sulejmani (46th Moumi Ngamaleu); Elia (71. Mambimbi), Nsame.

Comments: Ajax Amsterdam without Haller (not eligible to play), Onana (doping ban) Blind and Mazraoui (both injured). Young Boys without Von Ballmoos, Martins and Petignat (all injured). Camara eliminated with calf injury. 86th Post Shot Tadic. Warnings: 49th Lauper (foul), 53rd Tagliafico (foul), 64th Aebischer (foul / suspended for the second leg), 78th Sierro (foul).

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