Ajax secured a fantastic 4-1 victory over Heerenveen at the Johan Cruyff Arena on Sunday. New head coach John Van ‘t Schip has now won both of his matches in charge and the Amsterdam club are evidently on the up, having endured their worst-ever start to an Eredivisie campaign under the management of Maurice Steijn.
Having just beaten FC Volendam, confidence flowed through the Ajax squad at the start of this clash. The hosts had made it out of the relegation zone and were looking to secure back-to-back victories for the first time since May. Within 25 minutes, it was Steven Bergwijn who opened the scoring against Heerenveen, brilliantly set up by Steven Berghuis.
Brian Brobbey doubled Ajax’s lead shortly after, scoring just his fourth goal of the campaign. A pinpoint cross from Branco van den Boomen found the head of Brobbey who made no mistake with putting the ball past Andries Norpert.
Heerenveen applied some pressure just before the break as Luuk Brouwers converted with a header to make it 2-1. This clearly didn’t affect Ajax, who continued to dominate in the second half. With less than seven minutes remaining in the match, it was Chuba time. Chuba Akpom converted his second goal of the season since joining from Middlesbrough in the summer, heading the ball in from close range.
The visitors struggled to keep up with Ajax’s intensity throughout the match. That was evident again in the second minute of stoppage time. Chuba Akpom superbly slotted the ball into the bottom left corner to seal all three points for Ajax. The Amsterdammers look like they’re on the up after a horrific start to the campaign. The victory moves them all the way up to 11th place in the Eredivisie table – a much better position than when they occupied 18th place less than a week ago. Heerenveen sit in 13th place, having won just two of their last ten matches.
