📏 Form Guide

Ajax

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Ajax are hoping to win again following the 1-2 Eredivisie victory over NEC.

In that match, Ajax had 48% possession and 8 attempts at goal with 6 of them on target. The scorer for Ajax was Wout Weghorst (15', 48'). At the other end, NEC Nijmegen got 21 shots at goal with 8 on target. Sontje Hansen (13') scored for NEC.

Fixtures with Ajax have usually been absorbing ones lately with plenty of scoring being a real hallmark. Over their past 6 games, a grand total of 20 goals have been recorded for both teams combined (at an average of 3.33 goals per game) with 13 of these coming from Ajax.

Heading into this fixture, Ajax have not been beaten in their last 15 home league matches. Incredible, really.

FC Utrecht

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After being defeated in their last game at the hands of PSV Eindhoven in Eredivisie competition, FC Utrecht will be aiming to make amends here.

In that match, FC Utrecht managed 35% possession and 10 shots on goal with 3 of them on target. For FC Utrecht, the goals were scored by Anthony Descotte (34') and Siebe Horemans (88'). For their opponents, PSV had 13 attempts at goal with 8 on target. Ismael Saibari (12', 70'), Guus Til (54', 91') and Johan Bakayoko (74') scored for PSV Eindhoven.

The stats don’t lie, and FC Utrecht have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, letting opponents get 10 goals overall. Defensively, FC Utrecht certainly have room for improvement. It will be interesting to see if that trend will be sustained here.

Leading up to this clash, FC Utrecht:

• have not beaten Ajax in games played away from home for the previous 2 matches in the league.
• are unbeaten in their last 5 away league matches.

🤜🤛 Head to head

Looking at their prior head-to-head clashes going back to 03/10/2021 shows that Ajax have won 4 of these and FC Utrecht 2, with the tally of drawn results standing at 0.

A sum of 19 goals were yielded between them in these games, with 13 of them for de Godenzonen and 6 created by Utreg. That’s an average goals per game figure of 3.17.

The last league encounter featuring the two was Eredivisie match day 35 on 03/03/2024 which finished with the scoreline of Ajax 2-0 FC Utrecht.

That time, Ajax had 60% possession and 14 attempts at goal with 8 of them on target. The goalscorers were Brian Brobbey (39') and Kenneth Taylor (77').

FC Utrecht got 6 attempts on goal with 2 on target.

The match was refereed by Sander van der Eijk.

📰 Team News: Ajax

Amourricho Van Axel-Dongen (Ankle injury), Daniele Rugani (Ill), Gastón Ávila (Knee surgery), Brian Brobbey (Head injury), Mika Godts (Hamstring injury), Sivert Mannsverk (Ankle injury), Benjamin Tahirovic (concussion) and Devyne Rensch (Leg injury) aren’t available for Ajax gaffer Francesco Farioli.

It’s our opinion that de Godenzonen look set to line up in a 4-3-3 system for this game, handing starts to Remko Pasveer, Anton Gaaei, Josip Sutalo, Youri Baas, Jorrel Hato, Kenneth Taylor, Jordan Henderson, Kian Fitz-Jim, Bertrand Traore, Wout Weghorst and Chuba Akpom.

ℹ️ Team News: FC Utrecht

FC Utrecht boss Ron Jans has to contend with a number of unavailable players. Can Bozdogan (Achilles tendon problems), Alonzo Engwanda (unknown injury), Kevin Gadellaa (Knee surgery) and Kolbeinn Finnsson (unknown injury) will not be playing here.

From our viewpoint, Utreg could decide to utilise a 4-3-3 system using Vasilios Barkas, Niklas Vesterlund, Mike van der Hoorn, Nick Viergever, Souffian Elkarouani, Jens Toornstra, Paxten Aaronson, Zidane Iqbal, Miguel Rodriguez, David Min and Yoann Cathline.

🔮 Prediction

Our feeling is that Ajax have it within them to dominate possession and create several successful chances.

Conversely, FC Utrecht are also probably going to find it difficult to score although we do think that they will probably end up managing to get on the scoresheet as well here.

We’re therefore expecting to see a comfortable 3-1 winning margin for Ajax at the end of the 90 minutes.

Our expert partners are tipping under 3.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 18:06 04/12/2024