DBasia.news – Ajax Amsterdam had preparation time a week ahead of the match against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2018-19 Champions League semifinals. Eredivisie postponed week 33.
Ajax continues their cinderella story this season in the Champions League. After getting rid of three consecutive champions, Real Madrid, in the last 16 phase, the team made by Erik ten Hag got rid of the champion candidate, Juventus, along with Cristiano Ronaldo in his squad.
1-1 draw from the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final which took place at Johan Cruyff Arena, Ajax surprised the public through a 2-1 victory at Juve’s headquarters in the second leg through goals from Donny van de Beek and Matthijs de Ligt.
Ajax reached the Champions League semifinals for the first time since the 1996-97 season and expected European football lovers to continue their story, then add the Champions League trophy to being five.
Tottenham will be a challenge for Ajax after getting rid of champions, Manchester City, through a dramatic match at Etihad Stadium with a 3-4 final result for City’s victory – but Tottenham escaped due to the aggressiveness of 4-4 away goals.
Ajax still competes in two competitions this season: the Eredivisie and the Champions League. In the Eredivisie, Ajax currently ranks one of 30 matches with the same distance as PSV Eindhoven (74 points) and separated by a goal difference.
There are still four games left to determine the 2018-19 Eredivisie champions. However, the KNVB (Dutch Football Federation), decided to postpone week 33 of the Eredivisie for special reasons – not because Ajax played in the Champions League semifinals.
Ajax will play De Graafschap on Week 33 of the Eredivisie on Sunday (28/4) at 19.30 WIB. The match took place two days before the Ajax Champions League semifinals and it was a problem for the KNVB, as the Eredivisie teams were supposed to have two days to rest before the next match.
Week 33 cannot be moved or forwarded to Friday or Saturday as there is a national holiday in the Netherlands. That is, the KNVB will also find it difficult to prepare police and officers for the match.
As a result, given Ajax who fought in the struggle for the Eredivisie title and Graafschap who fought away from the relegation zone, the KNVB decided to move week 33 to Wednesday or May 15 (Netherlands time) and make it the final weekend of the match.
“This (the Eredivisie Week 33 schedule shift) can meet the conditions needed for at least two full days of rest between the two matches. That is the starting point of our meeting planning,” read a statement from the KNVB.
“That applies to all clubs and all competitions they play: Eredivisie, tournament (KNVB Cup), and European football,”
“In addition, for justice from the competition, we keep it as long as possible (to keep it exciting) and force the last two games of the club to be played in close proximity,” the statement continued.
Despite asserting that he did not help Ajax who was fighting in Europe, the break from the delay indirectly became an advantage for Ajax. De Godenzonen has a week of rest, while Tottenham only have a break from the Premier League schedule at the weekend.
That does not guarantee that Ajax can easily reach the final. However, with more rest time, players can recover properly and those injured have a faster recovery time.