Tonight, it’s Anderlecht – Ajax at Parc Astrid. Remarkably, Anderlecht have never been beaten by a Dutch team in European competition. They’ve played 10 matches and won eight of them. Last season, they went through against the same opponents, with a 3-1 victory in Amsterdam against an Ajax already qualified Tonight, Anderlecht start as underdogs to qualify, with Ajax as odds-on favourites.
A look at the budgets could explain why that is: Anderlecht have a figure of €35million against an Ajax annual budget of €62 million. That could explain the reasons why Herman Van Holsbeeck looks very happy when he quotes the bidding for Romelu Lukaku as starting at €30 million. Another interesting comparison is between the clubs’ major transfers. The record for Anderlecht is €3.5 million that they paid for both Mbark Boussoufa (from Ghent) and Lucas Biglia (from Independiente); Ajax, meanwhile paid just over €16 million for Serb Miralem Sulejmani from Heerenveen.
Compared with last year, Ajax will miss the departed Luis Suarez and Urby Emanuelson. That does make the match more even, but I tend to side with the bookies and feel Ajax will go though over two legs. Tonight, it will be interesting to see how Biglia and Boussoufa perform on the big stage, as both have seen their international credentials rise in the last 10 days. It will also be fascinating to see how Romelu Lukaku performs, as there will probably be a few hundred scouts, agents and tweeters following his every move. He’ll be up against Ajax’s Belgian centre backs Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweirheld.
Anderlecht appear likely to start with Brazilian Kanu in midfield, which will be a sign of intent. If Lukas Marecek starts, expect them to be looking for a 1-0. For Ajax, reports say Christian Eriksen will be on the bench at the kick-off, which surprises me given the reports tweeted when he played against England recently. Whatever the line-ups, it should be an absorbing game. And from a personal viewpoint, I’m hoping Anderlecht go through so that Belgium’s UEFA coefficient gets a bit of a boost.
Apropos of nothing, I loved Vertonghen’s remark to the Belgian press that Vincent Kompany could arguably be the best centre back in the world. And why not!