Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Ajax – Thu, Mar 14th 2024, 20:00
At A Glance
Aston Villa and Ajax meet to decide who will advance to the last eight of the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
Following a goalless draw in Amsterdam, attention turns to events at Villa Park, where extra-time and penalties are possible.
Villa have been strong on home turf during their European campaign, winning all four of their games in B6 this season.
Ajax began their season in the Europa League and endured mixed results on their travels before dropping into the Conference League.
A 4-1 success at Ludogorets in the qualifiers was followed by losses to Brighton & Hove Albion (2-0) and Olympique Marseille (4-3) and a draw with AEK Athens (1-1).
A late goal in the play-off round last month saw Ajax past Bodø/Glimt (4-3 on aggregate) after they drew 2-2 at home.
European Pedigree
Ajax are the sixth-most decorated club when it comes to winning European Cups, displaying four of the continent’s top honour in their trophy cabinet.
Three of those titles came in the space of three seasons in the early 1970s as the Dutch side became the dominant force in Europe, led by legendary playmaker Johan Cruijff. (Their 1971 triumph is pictured above).
In 1995, shortly after the tournament was renamed the Champions League, Ajax secured another crown, beating AC Milan with a late goal from 18-year-old Patrick Kluivert.
Louis van Gaal led the club to a UEFA Super Cup a few months later and that remains their last European trophy.
The four European Cups stand beside two Super Cups, a European Cup Winners’ Cup and a UEFA Cup, which was won in 1992.
More recently, Ajax’s last European final saw them lose out to Manchester United in the Europa League in 2017.
Last Time Out
Following last week’s first leg, Ajax returned to league action with a home game against Fortuna Sittard.
Things started well for the hosts as they took the lead after eight minutes through Kenneth Taylor.
But a second half comeback left them staring at defeat when they trailed 2-1 with two minutes to play.
However, they salvaged a point when substitute Brian Brobbey scrambled the ball home.
The First Leg
Aston Villa played out a goalless draw against Ajax in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16 tie as both sides finished with 10 men.
Brobbey found the side-netting for the hosts in the first half while Emi Martínez denied Taylor after the restart, with clear-cut opportunities limited at the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
The Villans saw Ezri Konsa sent off in the 83rd minute for a second bookable offence, before Tristan Gooijer was then shown a second yellow for Ajax shortly afterwards.
The Boss
“It will be very difficult. They have some experienced players and some young players, and they competed against us very well. I respect them a lot. With the players, we are analysing and speaking in our meetings a lot about how difficult the match will be tomorrow and how difficult it is to play in Europe. For Ajax, it’s a very important match as well. We are going to be humble in our preparation and then try to impose our game plan and play better than the match we played there. We drew there and it was, more or less, a good result but it’s not enough. It was a good result for them as well. We have to improve a lot of things we did there.” – Unai Emery
