I'm shattered and have lost my voice. Those gloating apps have turned sour blaming the referee obviously. God what a match.

Just now, sonic90 said:

If only there was more stoppage and we scored in the last 3 minutes which is not improbable at all as we had a shot on target every 1-2 minutes at the end, it would've been one of the most iconic group stage games to be watched over and over

We should have played like that from the moment Blind and Veltman got sent off. There were a 5minute lull after our momentum dropped that made Ajax believed again

40 minutes ago, coco said:

@Valerie can you believe your luck ?

Well, I was bravely predicting 4-4 to a colleague when we were 4-1 behind, not really believing we would pull it off 

Great game and full credit to both teams!

Us for coming back after being so piss poor in the first half and them for dominating the first half and still trying to win with 9 men. So, imo, a draw was a fair result.

 

One of the most incredible nights of football I've seen and I am very proud with how the team responded in the second half.

The 2 red cards and penalty was the clear turning point and, for my money, the ref got it right - Blind's lunge into Tammi was a clear yellow and the ball was later stopped by Veltman's arm in the box. You can argue whether his arm was down and by his side - for me he was moving away from the path of the ball, but left his arm trailing - but you can't argue that the ref was inconsistent: a few minutes later he gave a foul against Reece for an even lesser handball and then disallowed our 5th.

This team is going to be amazing once we sort out the iffy defending. Alonso was a very weak point and Reece has surely deserved to be given a chance now.

I felt that Frank should have targeted Blind and Veltman soon as the 2nd half started. Both on yellows and are easy targets, Blind is slow and likes to dive into tackles and Veltman is a hothead. 

Thought Tammy wasn’t great tonight, he missed a number of chances and his heading was very poor. Great player against the lesser teams but he needs to be putting more of these chances away.  Thought the youngsters in general just needed to be more ruthless. Great game though, decisions both ways I thought, Ajax defiantly came to do a job on us and they got it tactically right in terms of whipping in fast balls into are area we just can’t handle that. But they paid the price for quite a few cynical challenges.  

What a bonkers match!

A draw probably about right in the end, without the sending offs and the 2nd penalty we wouldn’t have got a draw so gotta be thankful we didn’t lose or we’d be 3rd tonight.

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

I'm shattered and have lost my voice. Those gloating apps have turned sour blaming the referee obviously. God what a match.

I genuinely thought we were getting on the end of a hiding tonight. How i cn be cursing our luck for the fifth goal being disallowed is crazy. At 65 minutes in i'd have bitten your arm off for a 4-4.

The joy of the recovery does paper of the chasms a bit though.

Frank was saying things tonight without his hands over his mouth, lip readers would have a field day and I suspect a few four letter expletives were used.

On a different note, doesn't Joe Cole look a bit like a young Mourinho these days, or is that just me being out of control?

13 minutes ago, coco said:

If that was harsh then so was our fifth goal being striked out.

 

Yup, I agree, but the penalty and double sending off turned the game, so I think we'll take the handball calls more than they will.

Great come back but i don't think we deserved a point tonight. Ajax much better team than us today, we had a very poor game and only Blind's stupidity (correct 2nd yellow and red card) and referee's decision to send off a second player (very harsh) put us back into the game.

Then we had 20 min to win it against a 9 men team and they created the better chances! Overall we have a lot of work to do and have to buy when the ban is lifted, we are seriously lacking in quality in a few positions. 

An equally young Ajax team showed us the big gap we have to bridge to become a good European team again. 

Happy for the result in the end but dissapointed by the team and a lot of the players today,, we were simply lucky to the draw. 

15 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

If we draw against Valencia, a win against lille will be enough. 

Yep, you're right. There are so many ways it can twist. Probably the tightest group we have had since we went out of the group stages the season after we won it.

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

We should have played like that from the moment Blind and Veltman got sent off. There were a 5minute lull after our momentum dropped that made Ajax believed again

Maybe, but maybe they were just class and with our glass jaw, we needed to be careful as well.

Annoyed and happy at same time. Never saw us coming back at 4-1 down. We got a point but in the circumstances, should have got a winner. James was fantastic when coming on. Kovacic, I thought was top class again. Ajax really are a top side though.

It is really important we don't lost to Valencia next round as if Valencia beat us and Ajax beat Lille as expected, Ajax and Valencia can literally play out for a draw in the last game, meaning both of them qualify.

UP THE CHELS !

Thought Tammy wasn’t great tonight, he missed a number of chances and his heading was very poor. Great player against the lesser teams but he needs to be putting more of these chances away.  Thought the youngsters in general just needed to be more ruthless. Great game though, decisions both ways I thought, Ajax defiantly came to do a job on us and they got it tactically right in terms of whipping in fast balls into are area we just can’t handle that. But they paid the price for quite a few cynical challenges.  

About right. Abraham was very poor and I thought CHO was awful. Must admit I'm still to get on the CHO bandwagon. I'm not convinced he has the potential others think he does. The flip side is that James once again showed he is ready for the step up.

9 minutes ago, Deino said:

Bats should have scored. The chances he got were the chances that world class strikers finish with their eyes closed.

I don’t think it needs a world class striker to finish the chance he had from 6 yards out, any pro footballer should be scoring that, every player misseS chances - just a bastard it was the one that would win the game.

Blind was bundling into players in midfield all night long and fully deserved his 2nd yellow.

8 minutes ago, Valerie said:

I'm shattered and have lost my voice. Those gloating apps have turned sour blaming the referee obviously. God what a match.

Can you come every week?

4 minutes ago, BadBlue said:

Great come back but i don't think we deserved a point tonight. Ajax much better team than us today, we had a very poor game and only Blind's stupidity (correct 2nd yellow and red card) and referee's decision to send off a second player (very harsh) put us back into the game.

Then we had 20 min to win it against a 9 men team and they created the better chances! Overall we have a lot of work to do and have to buy when the ban is lifted, we are seriously lacking in quality in a few positions. 

An equally young Ajax team showed us the big gap we have to bridge to become a good European team again. 

Happy for the result in the end but dissapointed by the team and a lot of the players today,, we were simply lucky to the draw. 

Their both players got their second yellow cards, after their whole defense just brutally wanted to stop our attack where they commited 3 hard fouls, and a handball. The 2 second yellow cards in that very situation is not harsh at all, their players blew the advantage they had.

A draw is a fair result, from 1:4 we scored 3 goals and an extra one that was taken away after a handball, that's a fair result, as much as we made our luck they made theirs with our 2 own goals.

Edited November 5, 20196 yr by Gol15

How should I sleep after this night?

Wow, I have no words to describe this game. 

Let's not forget Ajax had an extra days rest, though I do think they are a decent side.

Enjoyed that shoulder barge Willian gave in the 2nd half to Promes who got booked hacking Willian down in revenge.

Thought Willian also played well.

Just now, EdinburghBlue said:

I don’t think it needs a world class striker to finish the chance he had from 6 yards out, any pro footballer should be scoring that, every player misseS chances - just a bastard it was the one that would win the game.

That's why I said world class strikers finished with their eyes closed. It's almost criminal for anyone in the top flight to not score