The Amsterdammers head coach expressed his disappointment and insisted that his side staged a sloppy performance against the Eredivisie leaders.
Ajax Amsterdam recorded a 1-1 stalemate against AZ Alkmaar at AFAS Stadion on Sunday, January 22. Frank de Boer, the Amsterdammers head coach, expressed his disappointment following the draw.
AZ also ended the Dutch trainer’s side KNVB beker Cup run earlier last week, when they cruised to a 3-2 victory at Amsterdam Arena.
The 41-year-old tactician insisted that his side staged a far from pleasing show, and admitted that they were lucky in the end to take a lone point back to Amsterdam. The Dutch mentor, however, added that his side played better than their Dutch Cup defeat.
“There was a lot of difference. Although we occasionally played poorly, we still performed much better than our earlier defeat. After a good start, we unnecessarily lost possession many a times and failed to threaten the hosts in the opening 45 minutes.
Vertonghen should have avoided that tackle, which gave them the free-kick and Elm is as good a free-kick taker as a penalty-kick taker”, De Boer was quoted as saying to the media.
The Dutch trainer then went on to reveal that his side played better in the second-half and created good opportunities.
“In the second-half, we changed dramatically. We created opportunities, put pressure on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AZ-c38571’s back-line and scored the equaliser”, De Boer concluded.
Ajax started proceedings away from home in a bright manner, but failed to create any good opportunity. The hosts picked up the tempo slowly, and came close to breaking the deadlock at the half-hour mark. However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jan-Vertonghen-c17814 cleared the ball after the
visitors’ goalkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kenneth-Vermeer-c20618, had only parried away Charlison Benschop’s effort.
In the 37th minute, Vertonghen fouled Adam Maher just outside the penalty area and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rasmus-Elm-c30628 coolly converted the resulting free-kick.
After the break, the Amsterdammers played better and created good opportunities of scoring the equaliser. However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Miralem-Sulejmani-c25985 failed to hit the target.
In the 75th minute, Nicolas Lodeiro and Sulejmani played a neat one-two before the latter sent the ball into the back of the net. However, the AZ defender, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Simon-Poulsen-c33562, appeared to taken the decisive touch in the goal.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw with both sides sharing a point each.
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