Another team who will switch from Champions League to Europa League will host in the late Thursday night games, when Ajax Amsterdam will host against Legia Warsaw in the first leg of Europa League 1/16 finals. “Amsterdam ArenA” is set to welcome the Dutch-Polish clash, which will be the first ever game of Ajax against Polish opposition in UEFA competitions, while Legia will play their fourth match in the Netherlands, and their balance so far is 1 win and 2 defeats.
Ajax Amsterdam will come from the Champions League, where “de Godenzonen” were again in a tough group with the teams of Barcelona, PSG and APOEL Nicosia, and they should be happy at least from the fact that they will continue in Europa League. Frank de Boer and his squad are already knocked from the Dutch Cup (KNVB-Bekker), and the difference between Ajax and PSV, who are Eredivisie leader, is already 12 points, so we don’t see a reason why Ajax shouldn’t try to clean the same from last year, when Ajax lost in the same stage of Europa League – 0:3 in Amsterdam, and 3:1 in Austria vs Salzburg. One year later Ajax should be more prepared for European football and we expect bigger motivation from the Dutch Grand, who has so many successes and cups in his showcase.
Legia Warsaw will meet Ajax after a great performance by the Polish champions in Europa League group phase. “Legionnaires” finished on top of Group L, where they won 15 from 18 points, which is brilliant performance by the squad of Henning Berg. Now they will renew their European campaign in the new year, and we are sure that Legia aims to reach the next stage, but in our eyes Ajax will be more difficult opponent than the teams from Group L, where Legia was along with Trabzonspor, Lokeren and Metalist Kharkiv.
Final conclusion, betting preview and possible starting squads of Ajax Amsterdam and Legia Warsaw – UEFA Europa League 19.02.2015
Ajax will enter in this clash after a great win last weekend, when “Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax” won with 4:2 over Twente, and now Frank de Boer will want to earn a good advance before the second leg in Poland. Their main advantage before kick-off is from the fact that Dutch Eredivisie started in the middle of January, while the Polish Ekstraklasa was in winter break until last week.
Legia Warsaw already played their first competitive games in 2015 and we can say that Henning Berg can’t be so happy from the results of his squad. Legia opened their competitive football in 2015 with a disappointing 1:1 draw vs Slask Wroclaw (in the Polish Cup), while their first Ekstraklasa results was even more disappointing – 1:3 defeat at home from Jagiellonia Bialystok. Of course we should mention that Jagiellonia is third placed in Ekstraklasa, but this was the first home defeat of Legia since July 2014, when they lost from Bełchatow – 0:1, in the first round of Ekstraklasa. It’s true that Henning Berg rested some of his first team players, but still we expect more from Legia in Poland.
We find value in a home win for Ajax here, and we expect Ajax to start his European campaign in 2015 with a success. Frank de Boer knows how important is the European football for his club, and especially when for now it seems that Ajax is far from the Eredivisie trophy. His concerns are related with the names of Ricardo van Rhijn, Niki Zimling, Viktor Fischer, Lucas Andersen and Kolbeinn Sigthórsson, who are all doubtful for the hosts from Amsterdam.
Henning Berg will have to decide in the last moment about his midfielder Ondrej Duda, who suffers a foot injury and he is under question for the match in Thursday evening.
Possible starting XI:
Ajax: Cillessen – Viergever, Moisander, Boilesen, Tete – Serero, Sinkgraven, Klaassen – Kishna, Schöne, Milik. (4-3-3)
Legia: Kuciak – Rzezniczak, Broz, Astiz, Jodlowiec – Radovic, Vrdoljak – Zyro, Guilherme, Kucharczyk – Maslowski. (4-2-3-1)
Referee: Jonas Eriksson from Sweden.