Ajax with Pacefer, Bergwijs and maybe also Alvarez vs PSV | football

Mexican Edson Álvarez is also available again. On Sunday, the midfielder played in the United States in the losing final of the Gold Cup against the host country (1-0). He returned to the Netherlands on Tuesday and returned to coach Ajax on Friday. “He’s fine, he’s had a good summer. He’s part of our match selection and he can play against PSV Eindhoven,” said Ten Hag.

Ajax will be absent from goalkeeper Martin Stecklenburg, defender Per Schurz and midfielders Mohamed Kodos and Zakaria Lapid due to injuries. Brazilian striker Anthony is still in Japan, where he will play Spain in the Olympic final on Saturday. Argentine defender Nicolas Tagliafico, who missed an exhibition match with Leeds United (4-0) last Wednesday due to a minor injury, is available again.

Ten Hag admitted after the match against Leeds that PSV Eindhoven is currently ahead of Ajax in terms of fitness. Brabant’s players had to start preparations early due to the early influx in the preliminary round of the Champions League. With three wins, two against Galatasaray (5-1, 2-1) and one against FC Midtjelland (3-0), PSV Eindhoven seem to be in good shape quickly.

According to Ten Hag, the rival’s stellar start to the season from Eindhoven is not the result of a different system that PSV Eindhoven will use according to observers. “Do they play with a different system? I don’t think there’s much of a difference. They might have a slightly different position in possession, but defensively and under pressure, I think they still do the same thing they did last season. Maybe they’ll do it better now. We’ll see it on Saturday.” They also played against teams that don’t play like us. We are a different team and always rely on our strength.”

According to Tin Hag, there is only one preferred permission for the Johan Cruyff scale. „And this is Ajax, because Ajax is always the favourite. In the Super Cup, it’s about Johan Cruyff’s scale, a duel between the champion, the cup winner and the two of us. It only makes sense that she would be her favourite.”

Eindhoven takes Johan Cruyff Scheele’s duel seriously

Coach Roger Schmidt has no intention of resting many PSV Eindhoven players against Ajax. “We have a decent pick with Ryan Thomas,” he looked forward to Saturday’s game at the Johan Cruyff Arena. “My players are able to play two matches in a short time. We definitely want to beat Ajax.”

PSV Eindhoven coach Roger Schmidt looks forward to the Johan Cruyff-Schiel match during a press conference.

Ⓒ ANNP

Schmidt stayed in the middle whether he was starting with the top eleven. “The basis is not always critical to a good result,” he said. “And I can change five times.”

PSV Eindhoven will defend its comfortable 3-0 lead next Tuesday in the first leg against Midtjelland in the third round of qualifying for the Champions League. “But we’re not working on that right now,” midfielder Marco van Ginkel said. “I don’t think Eindhoven won a prize for three years. Now we can win a prize in a competition. That’s what we’re going to achieve.”

“We started the season well,” said coach Schmidt. „We played well in the duels with Ajax last season. But we also know that Ajax still has a strong squad. I saw it again in recent weeks when they trained against good German teams,” he recalled, referring to the friendly duels with Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. “They haven’t lost any key players and they still have the same coach. They know what winning is.”