Ajax look to continue fine run; United face Atletico
AMSTERDAM: Sebastien Haller will be bidding to continue his remarkable scoring record in this season’s Champions League when his Ajax side face Benfica in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday.
Ajax take on Benfica at the Estadio da Luz as they return to Lisbon, where Haller scored four times on his Champions League debut when the Dutch champions beat Sporting 5-1 along the road at the Jose Alvalade in September.
Ivory Coast international Haller went on to score 10 times in the group stage, becoming just the second player to find the net in all six group games in a Champions League campaign after Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017.
Haller’s tally of 10 goals puts him one ahead of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski in the competition’s scoring charts and is as many as Dortmund’s Erling Haaland managed last season when he finished as the Champions League’s leading marksman. However, Haller was not among the goals as Erik ten Hag’s side won 1-0 at Willem II at the weekend to stay five points clear of PSV Eindhoven at the top of the Dutch Eredivisie and make it 10 straight wins in all competitions.
Ajax have been rocked off the field by the recent resignation of sporting director Marc Overmars after he admitted sending a “series of inappropriate messages” to female colleagues.
Yet on the pitch Ten Hag’s side are threatening another deep run in the Champions League, three years after they reached the semi-finals with Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong their young stars.
Benfica qualified from their group at the expense of Barcelona but coach Jorge Jesus was sacked at the end of December, with Nelson Verissimo replacing him.
Since then Benfica have lost the League Cup final to Sporting and slipped 12 points behind Portuguese league leaders Porto.
They do, however, boast a prolific marksman of their own in Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez, who has scored 23 times this season including a brace in the 3-0 demolition of Barcelona in September.
Atletico look for spark
If winning La Liga caused Atletico Madrid to soften their edge or lose their identity, a Champions League tie against Man-* chester United could be a chance for them to get it back.
From the highs of winning their second league title in 25 years, have come the lows of humiliating defeats, unprecedented fragility in defence and introspection over style and application that has left even Diego Simeone’s future in doubt.
And yet amid all the soulsearching and despair, there have been pockets of resistance, a handful of rare but uplifting performances dotted across a miserable season, each of them sparking hope that a corner was about to be turned.
After losing away at Alaves, Atletico rallied against AC Milan at the San Siro to win 2-1.
After losing at home to Mallorca, they prevailed against Porto in Lisbon, a fiery 3-1 win taking them to last 16.