Ajax hammer De Graafschap in fine second half: 0-5

'Preparing' for an important Champions League fixture with a league game against the only team in Holland that did not win a match yet? Sounds perfect, but a wayward Ajax definitely did not look like they were going to win easily in Doetinchem's atmopsheric Vijverberg Stadium, where hosts De Graafschap remained upright with ease. After the half-time break, however, Ajax changed tack and restored the order: 0-5. Julien Escudé was the big man for Ajax: the French defender scored twice, for the first time ever. It was an easy game after all...

Coach Ronald Koeman had to change the Ajax midfield due to the injuries Steven Pienaar and Rafaël van der Vaart picked up against Feyenoord last weekend. Van der Vaart was on the bench (and will be available for Tuesday's game in Turin), whereas Pienaar will be out for a longer period. They were replaced in the starting eleven by Wesley Sneijder and Nourdin Boukhari. The latter was suspended for one game last Monday due to accumulated yellow cards, but acquitted a few days later. The KNVB appeared to have miscounted...

The first half in freezing cold Doetinchem was of worryingly poor quality. Ajax played too slowly and without any ideas. And although the hosts simply seemed to hapless to take advantage of it, it did not look like Ajax were going to have an easy night. The only two dangerous moments actually occurred in front of Hans Vonk's goal: in the 20th minute Julien Escudé's erratic backheader trickled inches wide of his own goal, slightly grazing the post. The subsequent corner kick was pulled back to defender Kalezic, whose well-taken shot beat Vonk, but was cleared off the goal-line by Maxwell.

Ajax's only noteworthy attempt in the first half was a Mauro Rosales shot, saved by goalkeeper Rob van Dijk. Centre forward Yannis Anastasiou, meanwhile, was struggling, partly because he hardly received any workable passes, partly because every movement of the Greek seemed slow. Anastasiou had a good game against Feyenoord last weekend. In Doetinchem everything he did seemed to go wrong. 

Julien Escudé scored twice, for the first time in his career. [Photo: Ajax.nl]

Whatever Ronald Koeman told his team during the half-time break, his words had the desired effect. Less than two minutes had been played in the second half as Julien Escudé nodded a corner kick against the netting ('helped' by goalkeeper Van Dijk, who should have remained on his goal-line, but didn't): 0-1 (47').

The opening goal seemed to immediately break the hosts' resistance. They had entered the pitch with an ultra-defensive team and seemed to aim for a draw. Now that they fell down it was over, so that Ajax could freewheel in the second half and pretty much score as many goals as they wanted. The score was doubled only six minutes after the opening goal as a low cross from the left flank was fumbled into goal at the far post. Mauro Rosales received the congratulations of his team-mates, but the final push was actually given by De Graafschap defender Dave Bus, who was officially booked as the scorer.

Ajax's third was once again scored by Julien Escudé, who was unmarked at the far post on a Wesley Sneijder free kick and simply tapped home: 0-3 (64'). The defender could hardly believe what had just happened to him: he scored only two official goals in his career so far (one for the French U-21 team and one for Ajax). In Doetinchem he doubled his total production. "I was surprised myself," Escudé said after the game. "The first one came at a very good moment. And then I scored again... I never did that before. Only in practice, but never in a match. The lads congratulated me in the dressing room, which was nice, of course. But I find it more important that we won and grabbed another three points. As for myself: I hope I can do this more often."

Escudé and his 'partner in crime' in the heart fof the Ajax defense, Zdenek Grygera, played another flawless game, both defensively and in building up attacks for their team. Escudé was voted 'Man Of The Match' by the viewers of pay-TV network Canal+.

One minute after Escudé's second goal, Koeman replaced Yannis Anastasiou with Young Ajax striker Ryan Babel (17). A début? No. Babel already played one Eredivisie game for Ajax (last season against ADO Den Haag), but it was his first Ajax-1 appearance of the season - and a surprising one, because the physically strong striker seems to have leapfrogged Wesley Sonck in the hierarchy. Babel (playing with jersey number 39) required less than 100 seconds to show why: he received the ball outside of the penalty area, turned and beautifully hammered it into the top corner from an estimated 25 yards for the most spectacular goal of the evening: 0-4 (66').

Wesley Sneijder played instead of an injured Rafaël van der Vaart. [Photo: Ajax.nl]

Ajax could have scored several goals in the remaining 25 minutes, but added only one: a low Galásek shot from long range, which did not seem unstoppable for Van Dijk, but trickled into the netting anyway.

"You know that teams like this can be tough to beat," said Koeman after the game. "But you also know that once the first goal is scored they may end up chasing shadows. Which is what happened today. But you really need that second goal first. Based on the second half we can say that this was an easy win, I suppose."

The next day PSV booked another clinical win at Vitesse (0-2), but Feyenoord surprisingly lost at home to Groningen (1-2), so that Ajax are now 4th, still far away from PSV and the still spectacular AZ (3-0 against RKC this weekend), but only one point behind the Rotterdammers. Which feels good with an away game at Juventus coming up. Ronald Koeman already announced that Rafaël van der Vaart will be fit to play and that Ryan Babel may well be in the starting line-up. (MP)

Sources: Ajax.nl, Graafschap.nl

GOALS

• 47'  0-1  Julien Escudé
• 53'  0-2  Dave Bus (own goal)
• 64'  0-3  Julien Escudé
• 66'  0-4  Ryan Babel
• 71'  0-5  Tomás Galásek

Referee: Jol
Cards: none
Attendance: 11,000

Ajax line-up: Vonk; Trabelsi, Grygera, Escudé, De Jong; Sneijder, Galásek, Maxwell; Rosales (68. De Ridder), Anastasiou (64. Babel), Boukhari (78. Mitea).

De Graafschap line-up: Van Dijk; Bot, Kalezic, Kooijman, Bus; Berck Beelenkamp (60. Van Leerdam), De Graef, Haklander; Zongo (52. Valeev), Magno (70. Van der Kruis), Van Beukering. 

Related Links:

• Discussion: Eredivisie Games
• Ajax.nl: Match report in English and Dutch