It's going to be a tricky match as Ajax against Heerenveen were saved by an unwarranted intervention by the VAR from another first half fast attack By H'veen. Lille has a couple of speed demons too in the persons of Osimhen and Bamba. Especially Osimhen, Dest direct opponent, is fast and furious. As Lille prefers to play sitting back it has the lure for Dest to push up very far, which is exactly what Osi and Bamba want. As Dest is the only one with real speed from the 3 Dutchies in the back line things can get very nasty fast.
This ran in the Orlando Sentinel: This club is really amazing! They’re killing it!🔥 #GetChoGrindUp pic.twitter.com/p1gSntxe8M— Michelle Bultmann (@Tinkerbell_510) September 17, 2019 The copy:
I still haven't seen confirmation whether it's Vletman-Schuurs or Dest-Veltman. I'd expect Dest for the speed, but maybe Ajax plays this a bit conservative. Haven't watched Lille enough yet to get a good sense of their attack at the moment. (Sadly for me though, I can't quite go with the "VAR saved Ajax" story... I watched the game. Heerenveen was really not good.)
Netherlands definitely has talent with Bogaerts, Profar, Jensen, and Albies but I don't think they have anywhere near the pitching the USA could throw out there
Say yes to the Dest... 🇳🇱Ajax: Onana, Dest, Veltman, Blind, Tagliafico, Álvarez, Martínez; Ziyech, Promes, Neres, Tadic🇫🇷Lille: Maignan, Zeki Çelik, Fonte, Gabriel, Bradaric - André, Soumaré, Sanches - Ikoné, Osimhen, Bamba.— Spor Arena (@sporarena) September 17, 2019 PBP thread?
If you asked me over the summer, I never would've predicted that Dest would be the only American to start the first game week of the Champions league group stage. Honestly, he would've been my longest of long shots. Me, being all pie in the sky, thought Pulisic would've gotten off to a good start at Chelsea, thought Adams would've recovered by now, didn't predict Weah getting hurt, and thought Horvath had the GK position and Brugge locked up. Credit to Dest and credit to Ajax for promoting and believing in their academy.
New journey. New goals. 🌟#UCL #ajalil pic.twitter.com/jU1BlqwYX1— AFC Ajax (@AFCAjax) September 17, 2019
dest after another nice overlap puts in a decent cross that just evades two attackers but neres collects and puts in a good cross and promes scores off hte header
dest makes a sneaky move to do enough to throw off the timing for a dangerous looking attacking run looking to connect with a dangerous cross
ajax forced to defend but dest with some clever interplay to launch a dangerous looking counter at speed before he is overtaken and muscled off the ball in the attacking third
bamba gets a pulled back cross off in front of dest that results in a dangerous shot that is saved. the gimme rebound is then put over the bar
Dest can't stop the cutback from Bamba, and Lille should've scored from it. Dest was with him step for step, and could've blocked the cross.
Well, what I warned for happened, but thanks to Onana with a last gasp save Ajax didnot concede a goal.
ajax love to play out of the back, but they are happy to boot it far upfield when conditions merit such an approach lol
dest with some showtime touches and translates it into a dangerous offensive move, but lille gets a dangerous counter out of it
They can get to that one after they quantify "made the run to draw defenders" on a goal. That would be a BS YA favorite.