The champions league is back again and teams are kicking off with the qualifying stages. While the big teams would all come to the fore at the middle of September, the other things that just managed to make the playoffs for their respective leagues would battle it out for very limited space in the champions league this season. To progress to the next stage and not be consigned to the Europa League, they would need to beat everyone in front of them. Fortunately for the teams, the champions league is fashioned in home and away pattern giving the other team a brilliant chance to come back should they lose the first game. Ajax and PAOK would face each other in this champions league qualifier knowing that a win for either team would put them in a good position ahead of the second leg of the match.
Ajax
Europe heard their breath last season as Ajax stunned the world. They had just remembered the defending champions off their crown as early as the knockout stage and that would be the end of the real Madrid dynasty. If the champions were ever going to be removed, no one would have thought it was going to be against Ajax. However, they executed their game to devastating effect. Juventus followed Real Madrid out of the tournament in the quarter-finals thanks to Ajax and now, the whole world was watching. Ajax was suddenly the team to beat. Fast forward to the present and the big boys in Europe have practically dismantled the team. With their great stars heading in opposite directions, its look unlikely that Ajax would live up to the same game they did last season. First, they would have to get through PAOK in a match they just have to win. Complacency could make them lose but only if they let it.
PAOK
PAOK have at least one thing that is working for them right now and that is their momentum. They are simply breathtaking right now and this would show in the swagger which they would have when starting this game. Having five wins and a draw is a statistic which would surely earn them admirers. However, the test which they are to face against the Dutch team would be in another level when compared with the teams which they have faced. They would have to fight well for a chance to play in the champions league next season. A loss here in their own home would all but end their chances.
Ajax is currently winless in 3 games. However, they have lost just once. That is the form which would give PAOK so much hope heading into this game. They would hope that their recent falters in the game would give then a chance to exploit this Ajax's team and with a number of their key men currently sold and leaving the club, there may never be a better time to play Ajax than this round. They could strike gold.
Comments