Andy Hunter’s verdict is in. Click and enjoy ... and thanks so much for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
A very content Jurgen Klopp speaks. “The performance was good enough to win the game, and that’s what we needed. Though both teams can play better football. It was in moments pretty wild. The pitch was really tricky, deep and muddy, and both teams looked exhausted pretty early. We didn’t use our chances, which is a bit of a shame. Ajax had a big one with the post. But all over I am really fine with the game. It was not our sunny-shine world-class football day, but in a tournament like the Champions League, you need the result and we got it. [Fabinho’s acrobatic line clearance] was a good example of how the boys played today: not perfect but they fought like crazy. The fresh legs up front helped. The medical team told me no Henderson for 90 minutes so we said, OK, 45. Curtis for his first appearance, Rhys Williams played last season non-league football, now he has Champions League, he will not forget that. So a lot of nice stories, and three points. Shame that Diogo didn’t score, Shaq was lively and Taki is a machine, he defends like the devil and is really involved. When you can make five changes in midweek games, most of the time we will have to do that.”
James Milner speaks. “It was always important to start well. A tough away game, so that’s a bonus. They’re a very good team, well organised, who play good football. We’ve had an up and down week so it was important to bounce back. I expected nothing less from this group of players. Fabinho’s a top player, and top players can adapt. He made an unbelievable clearance. Conditions were tricky and it was a bit like an old-fashioned English game, and we managed to grind out the win. We’re disappointed not to have scored more, but it’s a big clean sheet.”
That all went to plan for Liverpool. They weren’t at their sparkling best, but given their recent travails, that isn’t really the point. Fabinho and Gomez were both excellent at centre-back. The famous front three all had their moments and were given half-an-hour’s rest. Replacements Jota and Minamino both looked sharp, Shaqiri less so but willing. Henderson got half-a-game’s breather. And Adrian is what he is, but there’s more pluses than minuses on his spreadsheet tonight. They deserved the win on balance, though Ajax will point out the Klaassen skreaamer that caromed off the post, and that Fabinho was forced into a stunning acrobatic clearance by Tadic. They’ll give Liverpool plenty to think about in the return fixture at Anfield.
Atalanta won the other fixture 4-0 at Midtjylland, so they’re top of the Group D standings after one round of fixtures. Liverpool are in second, like the Italians on three points, but with an inferior goal difference. Ajax and Midtjylland are in third and fourth respectively after their opening-day defeats.
FULL TIME: Ajax 0-1 Liverpool
And that’s that! Three points and a clean sheet for Liverpool. Klopp’s broad smile says it all. A hard-fought, but deserved, victory.
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90 min +5: Time for one last Ajax chance, as Adrian comes to punch a high left-wing cross clear under pressure from Traore. The ball drops to Ekkelenkamp on the edge of the box. He shoots towards the unguarded net ... but wildly over. Adrian gets away with one!
90 min +4: Jota and Minamino combine marvellously in a tight space down the left, the former releasing the latter. Minamino enters the box and looks up, finding Shaqiri in the middle. Like Tagliafico before him, Shaqiri can’t sort his feet out. Unlike Tagliafico, the ball doesn’t squirt into the net.
90 min +3: Wijnaldum latches onto a loose ball in the middle of the park. He draws a foul from a desperate Promes, who is booked for his late lunge.
90 min +2: Milner takes the ball to the corner flag. It’s his last act of the match as he’s replaced by young centre-back Rhys Williams.
90 min +1: The first of five extra minutes. Liverpool’s corner is no good.
90 min: Liverpool waste another fine chance to finish this. Jota tears off down the left and slips the ball inside for Wijnaldum, who kills the ball brilliantly while in full flight, but then tries to pass the ball past Onana and into the bottom right. It’s parried by the keeper. Liverpool come again, Minamino trying to dink home from a tight angle on the right. Onana turns out for a corner.
89 min: Milner is down getting treatment for the second time in a few minutes. A clock-management masterclass by the old boy.
88 min: Jota, in space down the left, tries to rake a diagonal ball towards Shaqiri, in acres on the right. Wijnaldum intercepts the pass, unaware of the scheme, and swiftly ships possession.
87 min: Tagliafico and Huntelaar work the ball in from the left. Traore sends a header goalwards, but it’s weak and high and easy for Adrian.
86 min: Tadic scoops into a packed Liverpool box from the right. Adrian does extremely well to claim under extreme pressure from Traore.
85 min: Ajax throw everyone forward for a free kick. Liverpool break. Henderson works his way down the right and loops for Jota, who dallies over a shot while in a pocket of space, ten yards out. His effort is blocked. Big chance to put this game to bed for Liverpool. Can Ajax make them pay?
84 min: Ajax go for broke, taking off a couple of defenders in Blind and Schuurs, and sending on strikers in 19-year-old Lassina Traore and 37-year-old Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
83 min: Shaqiri takes. It doesn’t beat the first man. He’s been very quiet since coming on.
82 min: Mazraoui winds himself after falling awkwardly upon contesting a header. Milner and Minamino play on and earn a corner.
80 min: Alexander-Arnold is booked for taking his sweet time over a throw. Klopp isn’t happy about it, discussing the matter in depth with the fourth official. Meanwhile some admin re 1966: Bas Hendrikse points out that “the name of the goalkeeper of Ajax that time was not Willie Bols but Gert Bals.”
78 min: Minamino works cleverly down the left and rolls the ball across the face of the Ajax goal. Robertson tries his level best to poke home from six yards, but can’t connect. So close to the clincher.
77 min: Jota charges down Onana, who was miles from his box playing sweeper. But the deflection favours Ajax, allowing Schuurs to shepherd the ball away from danger on the left with the goal unguarded.
75 min: Martinez swings a couple of dangerous balls in from the left. Gomez heads the first powerfully clear, Robertson swipes the second back upfield. Ajax trying to turn up the heat as time runs out.
74 min: Wijnaldum meets the corner, ten yards out, but can only send his header over the bar. Ajax then make a double change, replacing Klaassen and Neres with Ekkelenkamp and Labyad.
73 min: Jota glides in from the left and tries to make himself enough space to shoot. He’s about to pull the trigger when Schuurs extends a leg and deflects out for a corner on the right.
71 min: Schuurs tries his luck from distance. He really gives his rising shot plenty, the ball only just clearing the bar. Adrian had it covered, but take nothing away from the sweetness of the connection.
70 min: So having pressed the button to publish that, Minamino glides in from the left and sends a swerver towards the left-hand side of goal. Onana makes a nine-course tasting menu of parrying it around the post. Ajax hearts in mouths for a split second there. But he’s kept it out, and nothing comes of the resulting corner.
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69 min: All a wee bit scrappy at the minute. Liverpool’s all-new front three haven’t managed to click together yet.
67 min: Klaassen slips a lovely pass down the inside-left for Tadic, who for a second looks like breaking clear into the box. But he lets Alexander-Arnold chase him down, and runs the ball out of play. A suggestion it twanged off the Liverpool defender’s arm, but after a VAR check, we play on.
65 min: A lull. Liverpool will be happy enough with that. “I was at the second leg in 1966,” writes Rhys Davies. “I have three clear memories. A piece in the programme by Ajax (written before the first leg) saying how they hoped their team of part-timers wouldn’t be embarrassed by the English champions. Cruyff making monkeys of the Liverpool defence for his goals. The Ajax goalie, incredible performance. Name as I recall was Willi Bols. Been a fan of Dutch football ever since.”
63 min: Jota is quickly into the action, dribbling down the left. He’s unable to find anyone in the middle with a weak cross. Liverpool come again through Jota, but his ball inside finds Minamino taking a fresh-air swipe from an ambitious distance.
61 min: Mind you, having said that, Mane’s right leg is now wrapped in ice. He doesn’t look in too much discomfort, though. A precautionary measure? Liverpool will certainly hope so.
60 min: Liverpool make a triple substitution. The famous front three of Salah, Mane and Firmino are replaced by Jota, Shaqiri and Minamino. A reminder that teams can make up to five changes, in up to three batches. This all feels very pre-planned.
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58 min: Robertson takes. It’s inviting for Firmino, but he can’t connect properly. Ajax stream up the other end, Neres cutting back from the right, Mazraoui sending a fine volley towards the bottom right. Adrian turns it around the post for a corner that leads to nothing.
57 min: Robertson turns on the jets in an attempt to beat Klaassen down the left. The ball clips off the Ajax man and out for a corner. From the set piece, Fabinho nearly gets a head onto the ball, ten yards out, but Onana slaps it away. Corner take two leads to a third.
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55 min: Liverpool have struggled to retain possession since the break. Ajax are on top right now.
53 min: They’ve also shown a replay of Adrian gathering that long pass under pressure. A suggestion that while claiming amid the melee, he knocked the ball onto Fabinho’s hand, but it would have been a ludicrous decision to give a penalty.
52 min: Ajax have been the much sharper side since the break. Schuurs tries to beat Adrian from the halfway line, which shows ambition if nothing else, but his effort sails miles wide. Speaking of Adrian, it’s not clear, but he might have got the lightest of fingertips to that Klaassen shot. Whether it was enough to deflect it onto the post, even if he did, would be a moot point. But credit where/if it’s due.
50 min: Adrian comes to the edge of his box to successfully claim a long pass. With plenty of players from both teams crowding around him, there was potential for that to go horribly wrong, but the oft-criticised keeper dealt with that well.
48 min: And they nearly get a penalty up the other end, Firmino spinning past a flat-footed Schuurs and feeling a hand on his shoulder. He goes down, but there wasn’t enough in it to pique the ref’s interest.
47 min: Nothing comes of the corner. But what an effort that was. You could have had Alisson in there as well as Adrian and neither of them would have been able to get to that. But Klaassen doesn’t get the luck his shot deserves. Liverpool breathe again.
46 min: Ajax are inches away from equalising! Tadic tees up Klaassen, just to the left of the D. Klaassen sends an absolute screamer across a helpless Adrian and off the inside of the right-hand post. It flies across the face of goal before being bundled out for a corner. What a shot!
Here we go again! Ajax get the second half underway. Liverpool have made a change at the break, sending on captain Jordan Henderson in place of Curtis Jones. Incidentally, in the other match in Group D, Atalanta are up to their free-scoring antics once again. They’re 3-0 up in Midtjylland.
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Ajax 0-1 Liverpool
Tadic and Neres nearly open Liverpool up down the right, but Alexander-Arnold clears. And that’s the end of an increasingly action-packed half of football. That took a while to get going, but by the end of the half, both teams were looking extremely dangerous in attack. The second half could be a blast!
45 min: From the resulting corner, Firmino plants a header straight into the arms of Onana. There will be two added minutes.
44 min: Astonishing end-to-end action, as Tadic chases a bouncing ball down the left and chips the outrushing Adrian. The ball’s about to cross the line when Fabinho acrobatically scissors it away! Then Liverpool head straight up the other end, Mane’s low cross from the left nearly poked into his own net by Schuurs! The ball bobbles inches wide of the left-hand post.
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43 min: Liverpool are beginning to look dangerous every time they attack. Mane spins cleverly again down the left and sprays a pass down the channel for Salah. Onana comes to the edge of his box to claim just in time, though Salah claims Tagliafico was holding him back a little. He’s not getting any decision, though he might have been flagged offside had he got there first anyway.
42 min: Liverpool were 4-0 down by this stage in 1966, so all’s going very much to plan tonight by comparison.
40 min: Robertson drives forward and slips wide right for Salah, who sashays into the box and looks to plant a power curler into the top left. Mazraoui extends a leg to block spectacularly. Onana was diving that way too, but there’s no guarantee he’d have got a hand to the shot, so that’s a fine intervention by the Ajax defender.
39 min: Firmino is this close to quarterbacking Salah free down the inside-right channel, but his long sliderule pass from deep is intercepted brilliantly by Tagliafico. Salah would have been clean through, so that’s made up a fair bit for his own goal.
37 min: Milner is booked for hanging out a cynical leg to stop an in-flight Neres launching a counter. He can’t complain, but does anyway.
GOAL! Ajax 0-1 Liverpool (Tagliafico og 35)
What a farcical opener this is. Mane spins sublimely down the left and enters the box. He sashays across and shapes to shoot. He manages to take up a massive divot, barely making proper contact with the ball, which flies off Blind’s knee and across the face of the six-yard box. Tagliafico can’t react quickly enough, isn’t able to sort his feet out, and shanks into his own net under no pressure whatsoever. All very surreal. The groundskeeper will be livid.
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33 min: What a save by Adrian! Promes drifts in from the left and slips wide for Neres, who returns it immediately. Promes is one on one with Adrian, six yards out! He slapshots goalward, but the keeper stands his ground and kicks away. A sensational reflex save. Promes might have been offside, but Adrian wasn’t to know.
32 min: Tadic shapes to shoot but floats one in instead. Easy meat for Adrian. Then up the other end, Salah nearly releases Firmino with the cleverest of backheels, but Blind sticks out a telescopic leg to flip the ball away from danger.
31 min: This time Klaassen is the injured party as Mane yanks his shirt, 35 yards out. A free kick, and one that Tadic likes the look of, despite the range.
30 min: A little space for Robertson on the left. He whips a low ball into the mixer, but Onana has read his intentions and is down quickly to smother it.
29 min: Tadic rolls a simple ball down the middle and nearly releases Promes. The sub is eventually crowded out, though Ajax come again, Gravenberch crossing from the left. Adrian comes out and punches clear with confidence.
27 min: Some cute interplay down the left between Robertson, Milner and Firmino. Eventually the ball’s pinged into the box for Jones, who accidentally catches Blind in the coupon while trying to hold him off. Free kick. The first bit of significant pressure on Ajax is released.
25 min: A couple of petty fouls by Klaassen in quick succession. Nothing major, but the referee gets a little irritated with him and the Ajax midfielder may not have too much slack remaining.
23 min: Liverpool have yet to achieve anything of note in the final third. Ajax look very comfortable right now. “Kudus to Ajax for a positive approach. There’s the Promes of goals, here. You’d have to be Blind to think otherwise. I’m here all week. Try the brownies.” Matt Dony, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try, but go easy on, the brownies.
21 min: Klopp is now fully incandescent. Here’s why! Promes works his way down the left and cuts across for Tadic, who tees up Gravenberch, whose fierce daisycutter flies inches wide of the left-hand post. Adrian was rooted and never getting to that. Liverpool so close to falling behind.
19 min: On the touchline, Klopp throws irritated shapes. If there was a thick fog, you can be sure he’d be on the pitch, Shankly style, giving his team the what-for.
17 min: Ajax are beginning to ask a few questions of Liverpool. Tagliafico causes plenty of trouble down the inside-left channel, nearly opening the visitors up on a couple of occasions. Adrian and Gomez take turns to clear the danger.
15 min: Adrian allows his kick to be charged down by Tadic. That eventually leads to a corner, from which Martinez heads goalwards from a tight angle on the left. Adrian makes up for his error by gathering with a safe pair of hands.
14 min: Kudus was injured after contesting a 50-50 with Fabinho. There wasn’t much by way of contact, but when the Ajax youngster landed, he twisted his ankle. A shame for the 20-year-old Ghanaian.
13 min: A lovely turn by Firmino, and he’s in a lot of space 30 yards out. He slips wide to Alexander-Arnold, whose concentration had lapsed, and he’s flagged offside. Careless. That was good field position for Liverpool.
11 min: Some good work by Gravenberch down the Ajax left. He slips inside for Tadic, who can’t sort his feet out in the Liverpool box, Fabinho nicking the ball away. Liverpool break at trademark speed, and Mane has a whack from the edge of the D. Schuurs blocks well. A lovely open feel to this now.
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10 min: Some space for Tadic down the right. Gomez sticks to him like glue and snuffs out a promising Ajax attack. That’ll settle a few nerves.
9 min: Nope, Kudus can’t continue. Quincy Promes comes on in his place.
7 min: A worry for Ajax as Kudus goes down with nobody in black and anthracite near him. The physios work his knee this way and that. He troops off with head hung low. He’s not been hooked yet, but it doesn’t look promising.
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6 min: They show a replay of the Adrian-Gomez miscommunication. Looks like Gomes wanted Adrian to stay where he was and await the backpass, but the keeper rushed out to clear. A couple of harsh words delivered by the young defender. He wasn’t happy with Adrian at all.
4 min: Jones slips a pass down the left for Mane, who is ushered off the ball by Schuurs, just in time. Mane already looks his usual lively self.
2 min: Some early nerves in the Liverpool backline, though. Gomez asks a little too much of Adrian, shepherding a loose pass back to the Liverpool box. But it’s not getting there, so the keeper has to race out and blooter clear, knocking his team-mate over in doing so. Easy to forget that Gomez is still only 23. A lot rests on his shoulders all of a sudden.
Liverpool get the ball rolling. Curtis Jones takes his first touch. Gomez launches a pass down the left. Milner breaks free and reaches the byline, but his pullback falls between Salah and Mane. A fast start by the English champions, though.
Here come the teams! It’s a blustery night in Amsterdam, with the wind whipping around the Johan Cruyff ArenA, the roof having been kept open. Someone’s commissioned a beat-backed remix of the Champions League theme - Zadok the Priest (version) - so we have to suffer that, but it segues into the well-worn version quickly enough. Small mercies. We’ll be off in a minute. “I figure we’re in for plenty of goals tonight given the rejigged Liverpool lineup and Adrian in net,” writes Mike MacKenzie. “So that likely means 0-0 or 1-1.”
Ajax play in their famous red and white shirts tonight. Liverpool meanwhile will be dressed in black and grey anthracite checks. Write your own press release using the following marketing-approved phrases: “iconic”, “inspiration from European nights”, “heavily influenced by chequered flags and banners”, “unrivalled atmosphere”, “seamlessly blended colourway”, “explored long-standing traditions”, “the lens of sneaker culture”, “winging it”, “not a patch on the late-70s white Umbro number with Hitachi on the front”. The lens of sneaker culture!
Positive-mindset guru Jurgen Klopp speaks to BT Sport. “Curtis Jones is good enough. That’s it. But also the situation of course. We have a few problems so we have to make sure we can start, and how we can finish the game. So that’s the reason. He’s good enough. That’s why he plays. We do not think about [the missing Alisson and Virgil van Dijk] but we constantly get asked about it so it is difficult not to think about it! But when we are alone, you focus on the players available, and go with all you have, it’s what you do. Football depends on individual quality of players, but not as much as people might think. It’s all about perception. You think in single situations: ah, with Van Dijk it would have been different. Yes. But we cannot change that. So we don’t think like this, we just try to play the best football we are able to do.”
Two big calls made by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. The first everyone pretty much expected: Fabinho drops back from midfield to attempt to fill the boots of Virgil van Dijk. The second is a bit more of a curveball: 19-year-old Curtis Jones makes his full Champions League debut in midfield. He’s one of four changes to the XI named at Everton last Saturday, with Georginio Wijnaldum and James Milner all coming into a new-look midfield, and Joe Gomez, a sub at the weekend, partnering Fabinho at the back. The captain Jordan Henderson drops to the bench; Thiago and Joel Matip are out injured.
Meanwhile there are some familiar names in the Ajax team. Say hello again to former Premier League stars Dusan Tadic (Southampton), Daley Blind (Manchester United) and Davy Klaassen (Everton). Coach Erik Ten Hag is clearly in If It Ain’t Broke mode: ten of the XI starters of the 5-1 rout of Heerenveen are on the teamsheet again. Lisandro Martinez takes the place of Lassina Traore.
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The teams
Ajax: Onana, Mazraoui, Schuurs, Martinez, Tagliafico, Klaassen, Blind, Gravenberch, Neres, Tadic, Kudus.
Subs: Stekelenburg, Alvarez, Klaiber, Huntelaar, Promes, Ekkelenkamp, Labyad, Traore, Kotarski.
Liverpool: Adrian, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Fabinho, Robertson, Milner, Wijnaldum, Jones, Salah, Firmino, Mane.
Subs: Henderson, Minamino, Jota, Shaqiri, Origi, Rhys Williams, Kelleher, Neco Williams, Jaros, Cain.
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany).
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Preamble
Liverpool have only ever played one competitive fixture against Ajax in Amsterdam before. This was goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence’s view of proceedings:
It was December 1966, European Cup second round, first leg, and Ajax, inspired by a youthful Johan Cruyff, went 2-0 up in 16 minutes. Bill Shankly, aghast at his team’s performance, sauntered onto the pitch under cover of fog and gave his players a good old-fashioned what-for. Much good it did; Liverpool were four down by half-time. The match ended 5-1, and Shankly, with all the chutzpah he could muster, criticised Ajax for “playing defensive football on their own ground”. What a man.
The return leg at Anfield was drawn 2-2, the goals shared between Cruyff and Roger Hunt. The hunt was something that Liverpool weren’t in; a Barcelona-style comeback was never on the cards. Mind you, that didn’t stop ITV commentator Gerry Loftus wondering, upon Hunt scoring his second on 85 minutes: “Could it possibly be that Liverpool could pull four back in just over four minutes?” Rough translation: “Please don’t turn over to BBC1.”
There ends the entire competitive history between two world-famous clubs with 21 European trophies between them. Strange how it all falls sometimes - not least because Ajax were seconds away from lining up a showdown at the 2019 final, before Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Moura broke their hearts. But here they are, meeting again at long last.
Ajax will be in good spirits, having won four of their first five Eredivisie games, the last a 5-1 spanking of Heerenveen. Liverpool, not so much, on account of ... well, let’s not pour more salt into that open wound. But the show must go on without their best defender, and how they could do with a defiant performance tonight to lift the mood. Easy to forget right now that they’re still not half bad when piling forward.
The fun starts at 8pm BST, 9pm in Amsterdam. It’s on!
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