Violence erupts in vintage de Klassieker semi-final

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When Ajax and Feyenoord meet, is it ever short of dramatic?

Feyenoord just beat Ajax by a goal in their last encounter in the Eredivisie last month.
If you think tempers flared then, you’re wrong now.

Oh yes! We can’t forget the fact that Ajax are in the KNVB cup final!

Months of drama. Months of instability. Two managers have been at the helm this season. Van der Sar has more problems than he has had personnel walk out the door and that’s saying something.

Ajax can finally sink their teeth into something positive to look forward to. For too long they have been in pain. It is time to celebrate something – until the time comes that they might get knocked out of the cup final.

The crowd were up for it – just a little more than they should have.

The drama

The game started five minutes late to allow the heavy smoke from fireworks set off by the fans to clear. Even 20 minutes in, you could make out the black haze still lingering between stands.

Davy Klaassen was celebrating an Ajax goal before being pelted on the back of his head by a foreign object from the crowd.

The referee halted play for almost 30 minutes and took the players down the tunnel before the end of the game.

Shortly before that, in the 62nd minute, Dusan Tadic floored his Feyenoord counterpart Kokcu to the floor after a barge and the latter hanging on to this shirt.

Kokcu was infuriated as Tadic kept gloating at the fact that he just got floored. Referee quickly intervened but it took half a dozen players to break up the melee.

Amongst the chaos, you can see a Feyenoord player in the background of the shot gesturing the fans to stop. But they kept going.

Hurling drinks. Throwing foreigns objects of some sort. One of which somehow unfortunately accurate enough to get Klaassen on the head.

During the stoppage, Feyenoord assistant John de Wolf walked out to urge the home fans to ‘use some common sense’ before play got underway again.

After the resumption, Klaassen was asked to be subbed off gesturing a possible concussion.

The game

Steve Bergwijn served up a voluptuous cross in the 5th minute, that found Mohammed Kudus who blasted the ball way over the target with his head. First warning shot.

A clever ball over the top from deep found Feyenoord midfielder Jahanbakhsh before putting himself in a great one-one-one scenario with keeper Rulli. Pressure defending saw him fluff his chance.

Klaassen set up the first goal with a beautiful through ball to Sanchez who was making a marauding run on the left blank. Then comes a bizarre moment.

Sanchez crosses the ball into the box. It looks like Feyenoord right back Pedersen is about to get on the end of it in the middle of the box and clear it. However, Jahanbakhsh gets there too. This leads to the latter getting front flipped on his back by the former.

The ball ends up in Tadic’s feet who takes care of the rest. What a calamity.

Speaking of the devil, Jahanbakhsh nearly equalised at the other end of the pitch after hitting a volley on the edge of the box to hit the post.

Another chance went begging after Feyenoord missed a tap-in from a long throw due to a mistake in Rulli’s distribution.

However, in first half stoppage time things took a dramatic twist. The match had a lot of transitions and Jahanbakhsh ended up in acres of space thanks to a quick counter attack.

He puts in a really great cross to allow Santiago Giminez to thunder in a bullet header and make it equal before the break. Crowd goes absolutely mental.

However shortly after the break, the pendulum swings again. Klaassen adds to his match assist with a winning goal after shooting off a Wellenreuther save rebound.

Mohammed Kudus asked to be subbed off immediately while holding his hamstring. A disastrous forecast ahead if the injury is severe.

Aftermath

Ajax have a place in the final. Great. If they go on to win it, fantastic! However, it does not change the fact that the club is in limbo, both on and off the pitch. They have a manager who has no clear game plan and no proven track record of improving players dramatically this season.

Don’t let the cracks get bigger before it’s too late.

The players went against the odds to take down the best team in the Netherlands at the moment. It is going to take a higher gear to take down PSV in the final.