Auxerre turn Ajax's season into a nightmare: 3-1
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3 (1)
- 1 (1)
UEFA Cup
Stade d'Abbé Deschamps, Auxerre
Wednesday, 24 February, 2005
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The days of Ronald Koeman as head-coach of Ajax seem
numbered after a dramatic night of European football,
reminiscent of the team's painful and
devastating collapse at
Club Brugge in December 2003. Even a 1-0 home win
and a precious away goal in the first half were not
enough for a yet again totally soulless Ajax team to
survive the second half against AJ Auxerre, a French team
that was never impressive, yet outplayed and outpowered Ajax
for almost the entire match. Ajax survived 41 minutes of
Auxerre's second half siege, but received the knock-out punch
as Lionel Mathis nodded home on a corner kick: 3-1.
Hatem Trabelsi. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
Auxerre deserved the win and a slot in
the 'round of sixteen'. The French were thoroughly
disappointing two weeks ago at the ArenA, but were - over two
games - the only side to let go of their diffidence and boldly
grab the opponent by the throat. At their own Abbé
Deschamps Stadium they did so from the start. Less than
twenty minutes after Ronald Koeman had said in a quick
pre-kickoff interview on RTL5 television that his team
was not going to lean back, the hosts had
already wasted three enormous chances: a low Akalé
shot went millimeters wide, Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax's
best man on the day) punched a Benjani header out of his goal
and an erratic Nigel de Jong pass gave Benjani a free passage
to Stekelenburg, who saved superbly. Thirteen minutes had been
played - and the Amsterdammers' backs were
already pressed firmly against the wall.
Auxerre's inevitable opening goal was,
ironically, scored when Ajax seemed to be recovering
from their dreadful start. Goalkeeper Cool had, in fact, just
saved Ajax's first shot on goal (Ryan Babel) when
Bonaventure Kalou jumped higher than Maxwell on a Cheyrou
free-kick and nodded home with, remarkably, the back of his
head: 1-0 (31'). A well-deserved goal for Auxerre, but also
for the Ivorian himself. The former Feyenoord
man was confronted with a racist banner last week at the
Amsterdam ArenA and couldn't resist the temptation
of provoking the section of travelling Ajax fans. As
painful as it was, there was a sort of 'Shakespearean'
tragic justice about it.
Only six minutes later, however, the Dutch end was
celebrating the equalizer that Ajax hardly deserved
at that point. It was scored from Ajax's first good attack of
the game: Mauro Rosales nicely set up Hatem
Trabelsi (Ajax's best outfield player on the night), who
penetrated the penalty box and nicely pulled back to Ryan
Babel, who rammed home like real strikers do for
the tremendously important 'road goal' Ajax were looking
for. They seemed in control in the latter phase of the
first half, knowing that Auxerre now required another
two goals. Everything seemed okay.
Julien Escudé. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The second half, however, was a nightmare. Anthony
Obodai and Wesley Sneijder (back from a hamstring injury)
had terrible performances in midfield. They weren't
supposed to start, but had to, due to the absence of
midfielders Galásek, Pienaar (both injured), Van der
Vaart and Lindgren (both victims of the current
Dutch flu epidemic). In defense, Nigel de
Jong passed erratically on several occasions, while Julien
Escudé (Ajax's best man in recent weeks) also had a
poor game.
Auxerre did not create too many chances and were rather
inaccurate themselves. However, forwards Akalé,
Benjani and Kalou were on-form and constantly threatening.
Trouble was inevitable for this absolutely hapless Ajax
lot, who seemed unable to string more than
two good passes together and only remained
upright because Stekelenburg and Trabelsi pulled
out all the stops. Auxerre's second goal came early
and at a rather unfortunate moment: Nigel de Jong
had briefly left the pitch for treatment after a harsh
Benjani charge and saw from the sideline how Julien
Escudé tapped the ball to Benoit Cheyrou,
who fired home from the edge of the box: 2-1 (55')
Ajax were still advancing, but now on the verge of
disaster.
Ajax never managed to fight back, but as the game pulled
into the last five minutes it seemed like the
Amsterdammers were actually going to survive, albeit
gasping for breath under Auxerre's pressure. Urby Emanuelson
made his official Ajax-1 début and battled well in
midfield, but Koeman's decision to bring on another Young
Ajax first-timer just when Auxerre were preparing for a corner
kick turned out to be fatal. "A substitution
just before an Auxerre corner...? That's not smart. That's
asking for trouble," RTL5 commentator Leo Driessen told the
Dutch viewers. His words were ominous: young Hedwiges Maduro
was still on his way to the penalty area when Lionel Mathis
nodded the hosts' decisive third against the netting from close
range. Ajax never came close to Fabien Cool's goal in the
remaining minutes. The travelling supporters wouldn't even have
noticed: they were busy pulling down the fences and invading
the section next to them, and battling police outside of the
ground.
Ronald Koeman. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
"Everyone knew who to mark in the penalty area on corner
kicks," said Koeman after the game, "and Anthony Obodai
had a specific task outside of the box. It was
safe to replace him." The Ajax boss added that the
European elimination is 'truly terrible'.
What is there left to say...? Ajax, a club with the
ambition to return to the top of European
football, were the joker in their Champions League
group this season and stumbled into the UEFA Cup in rather
fortunate fashion, only to be immediately eliminated by
a team that's having a disappointing season in the
French league and lost to the bottom side of the table (Istres)
last weekend. Auxerre are small-timers. A modest
provincial club in the mediocre center group of European
football. And they were, at the end of the
day, much better than Ajax...
How sad... After the memorable Champions League campaign of
2002-2003 everyone with an Ajax heart expected the club to
seriously compete with the best in 2004 and 2005. The large
part of the promising crop of youngsters is still there, but
Ajax now find themselves back in the dark days of UEFA Cup
eliminations by Lausanne Sports and FC Copenhagen.
Ajax have hit rock-bottom for the second time this
season. The battle for the Dutch championship is almost
certainly lost, the second slot is still far away
and the European campaign has turned into a apocolyptic
nightmare. There's nothing left to be won (except the
unimportant Amstel Cup), only more to be lost: the next away
game in the Eredivisie is Roda away, traditionally a very tough
one for Ajax. The next two home games are against AZ and
PSV... (MP)
GOALS
- 31' 1-0 Bonaventure Kalou
- 37' 1-1 Ryan Babel
- 55' 2-1 Benoit Cheyrou
- 86' 3-1 Lionel Mathis
Referee: Benquerença
(Portugal)
Yellow cards: Boukhari,
Escudé (Ajax), Mignot (AJ Auxerre)
Attendance: 12,000
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi, De
Jong, Escudé, Maxwell; Obodai (86. Maduro), Heitinga,
Sneijder (80. Emanuelson); Rosales (82. De Ridder), Babel,
Boukhari.
AJ Auxerre line-up: Cool; Sagna,
Mignot, Bolf, Jaurès; Violeau, Cheyrou, Tainio (77.
Mathis), Akalé (90. Gonzalez); Kalou, Benjani.
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