Ajax-Valencia Good luck on Tuesday, gentlemen. How about we both do each other a favor, both win our games on Tuesday and take the last week off to prepare for the knock out stage? The ArseAm guys will be watching the results on Tuesday closely, so feel free to stop in on our PBP to celebrate any Ajax goals as we'll be happy to celebrate them as well. Cheers!
possible line-ups from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/2832737.stm Ajax (probable): Lobont, Trabelsi, Chivu, Pasanen, O'Brien, de Jong, Galasek, Pienaar, Maxwell, Van der Vaart, Ibrahimovic. Valencia (probable): Canizares, Reveillere, Pellegrino, Ayala, Carboni, Rufete, Baraja, Albelda, Vicente, Aimar, Carew or Mista. Referee: Lubos Michel (Slovakia). just wondering...would it be good to have Litmanen in the game if vd Vaart is up front? also is de Jong in over vd Meyde for a more of a defensive approach?
Koeman said that if they tied they would still be in control of their destiny, so yeah I think it is a bit more defensive.
Here's how I think it comes down: Win or draw v. Roma -- Ajax advances to QF in first or second, depending on outcome of Arsenal/Valencia Loss v. Roma and Arsenal beats Valencia--Ajax advances to QF in second Loss v. Roma and Valencia beats Arsenal--Valencia advances in first and second place tie between Ajax, Arse, and Roma. Loss v. Roma and Valencia draws Arsenal--Arsenal advances in first and second place tie between Ajax, Roma, and Valencia. Anyone know what Champs League uses as tiebreaker? I thought it would be GD but the tables I've seen put Ajax first now even though their GD (1) is less than Arsenal's (2).
i'm thinking Ajax is in 1st because they scored at Highbury and Arsenal didn't score at the ArenA. so my guess is overall points, head to head results, head to head goals, then goal difference.
1 Ajax 7 2 Arsenal 7 3 Valencia 6 4 AS Roma 4 If Ajax loses with 2-0, AS Roma goes over them in the standings; then they would go through with either Arsenal or Valencia Which answers your question, first tiebreaker is the games against each other. Ajax won their home game against Roma with 2-1, so Roma winning with 2-0 would put them ahead of Ajax. If the away game is also 2-1, then I think goal differential is the next tiebreaker
Hmmm...this could get weird: If AS Roma win they would have 7 points. If Arsenal lose, they would have 7 points. Ajax would have lost, so they also have 7 points. If 3 teams have the same amount of points: the games against Valencia will be ignored, who then leads in points ignoring the points received against Valencia will go through, and the goal differential between the 3 teams would be the next tie breaker. edit: in that scenario Arsenal would go through with Valencia I guess. Because only their 1 point against Valencia would be ignored, while Ajax would lose 2 points, and AS Roma 3.
Makes sense I guess, because you can't look at the individual encounters between the teams (Ajax is over Arsenal, AS Roma is over Ajax, Arsenal is over AS Roma) but you still want to let the team through that was better in the encounters between the 3 teams...so you take Valencia out of the equation, and let the team through that got the most points out of the 3 clubs that are tied.
Hello Ajax fans American college student, DC United/Arsenal fan here; I will be in lovely Amsterdam on 23 March during my spring break, the date of the PSV-Ajax match; whats the best place to catch the game on tv over there, seeing as the match will be in Eindhoven? Thanks Hopefully you guys will come through with Arsenal to the quarterfinals!
Plenty of options. You probably can't go wrong in the 'English' pubs around Leidseplein. Big scree TV's, and sure to be good atmosphere. Might not be the highest concentration of Ajax fans per capita, but then, many of the die-hards will be in Roma anyway. Point of fact, you guys have a bit more to do than we do to get through. Still, would be great for Ajax and Arsenal to get through, 1-2 of course.
In town for spring break, and loving this beautiful city - Looking forward to downing a few pints and watching PSV-Ajax tomorrow; gotta find the bar with the best atmosphere for it though, so i can drag my non-footy traveling companions away from museums for two hours.
Good to see van der Vaart back in the Oranje squad. http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-euronetherlandssquad&prov=reuters&type=lgns
Match Report: Ajax v RBC Roosendaal Solid performance from Ajax yesterday. Match report, and links to video of goals, here: http://www.ajax-usa.com/ajax/matches/02-03/0405.html
It seems Ajax isn't the only team who has to deal with many injuries (although for Ajax, all the injured players have pretty much come back already ) besides Seedorf and Pirlo, AC Milan might also lose Rui Costa in next week's Champion's League clash against Ajax....yay!