Ludogorets host Ajax in a battle of the heavyweights in the Europa League playoff on Thursday. Ajax placed third in the Eredivisie last year. They entered Europa League qualification before Ludogrets. They were eliminated from Champions League qualifying earlier in the month.
Preview (Ludogorets vs. Ajax)
In the first round of Champions League qualification, Ludogorets Razgrad defeated Ballkani with ease, winning 6-0 on the road. However, they were unable to go beyond NK Olimpija Ljubljana in the next round, losing 3-2 on the road. Ivaylo Petev’s team defeated Astana to secure a 6-3 aggregate victory over the Kazakhstani team. Thanks to an astonishing 5-1 thrashing in the second leg.
Ludogorets entered the 2023–24 season as clear favorites after winning each of the previous 12 top-flight championships in Bulgaria, but they have already suffered two domestic losses this year, putting them seven points behind the leaders. The Eagles scored a total of 13 goals in three convincing triumphs. They maintained three clean sheets for good measure after suffering a shocking 3-1 loss to Krumovgrad in their league debut. Ludogorets enters Thursday’s first leg coming off a shocking 1-0 loss to Cherno More. Ihor Plastun and Matias Tissera got red cards in the final seconds of the second half.
Ajax has historically participated in the Champions League. The Dutch powerhouse will not be competing in the continent’s top club competition this year. Following a subpar campaign, Ajax found themselves outside of the top two of the Eredivisie last season. It was the first time since 2008-09. They finished six points behind PSV Eindhoven in second place and 13 points behind winners Feyenoord. John Heitinga took over as temporary manager until the conclusion of the season. Maurice Steijn became the team’s permanent manager in July.
Steijn appeared to have trouble adjusting to his new position after suffering crushing defeats in the preseason matches against Borussia Dortmund, Augsburg, and Anderlecht, but the former Sparta Rotterdam manager has presided over an undefeated start to the 2023–24 season. Steijn will be hoping for another successful outcome on Thursday after De Godenzonen rallied from a goal down to tie 2-2 with Excelsior the previous weekend. De Godenzonen had previously destroyed Heracles 4-1 in the opening weekend of the Eredivisie season.
Team News
Due to ongoing injuries, Denny Gropper (ACL) and Anton Nedyalkov (surgery) have not played for Ludogorets this season. Kwadwo Duah (ankle) will miss the first leg. On Thursday, Ivaylo Petev is most likely going to play his team in a 4-3-3 configuration with Bernard Tekpetey, Rwan Seco, and Kiril Despodov manning the forward line. Goalkeepers Remko Pasveer (hand) and Geronimo Rulli (shoulder) are both out with injuries for Ajax, therefore Jay Gorter will remain in the starting lineup.
Steijn has a lot to consider when choosing his lineup because there are also doubts about the health of Ahmetcan Kaplan (knee), Francisco Conceicao (muscle), and Amourricho van Axel Dongen (knock). Mohammed Kudus is anticipated to start for the visitors on Thursday, pairing with Steven Bergwijn and Carlos Borges in a 4-2-3-1 formation behind Brian Brobbey, the team’s striker, despite continuous speculations tying him to a transfer away from the club. Although Thursday’s match between Ajax and Ludogorets is expected to be a close one as both teams want to stay in the tie, Ludogorets already has lost a couple of league games in an atypical manner.
Ludogorets 1 – 2 Ajax
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