Ajax vs Lille
Champions League 2019/20 season
Venue: Johan Cruyff Arena
Date: Tuesday 17th September, 2019
Kick-off time: 8pm BST
Ajax, the surprise package of last season's Champions League campaign, are back in action on Tuesday to kick off their group-stage campaign against Lille.
The Dutch giants were seconds away from reaching the final last term, only for Lucas Moura to complete a last-gasp hat-trick to send Tottenham through in away goals in Amsterdam.
Erik ten Hag's side recovered from that massive setback to win the Dutch title, but even that wasn't enough to secure their spot in this season's tournament as they had to go through a nervy deciding qualifier against APOEL.
Despite losing key duo Matthis de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong to Juventus and Barcelona respectively, Ajax will be full of confidence this term after knocking out the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus last season.
Team news
Ajax will have to cope without influential midfielder Donny van de Beek and full-back Noussair Mazraoui.
Van de Beek is struggling with a thigh injury while Mazraoui returned from playing in Olympic Games qualifiers for Morocco last week with a knee complaint.
Prediction: Ajax 3-1 Lille
Ajax have picked up 13 points from their opening five Eredivisie games to suggest the loss of De Jong and De Ligt may not necessarily be fully felt until bigger tests this season.
The hosts should pick up all three points here, especially with Lille losing two of their opening five matches this term.
Tickets
Click here for more information about tickets.
Betting tips via Betfair | UK users only | Subject to change
Match odds
- Ajax to win: 4/9
- Draw: 18/5
- Lille to win: 13/2
- Ajax to win 2-1: 13/2
TV channel and live stream information
The match will be televised live on BT Sport Extra 2 and can be streamed live online via the BT app and website.
You can follow all the action and analysis on Standard Sport's LIVE blog.
Head to head (h2h) results and history
This will be the first meeting between the two sides in an official Uefa competition.
