Lille hosts Ajax in the first leg of the Europa League 1/16 finals. The match will be played on Thursday, February 18th at Stade Pierre-Mauroy (Villeneuve d'Ascq)
Lille is approaching the upcoming meeting in the status of the leader of the French championship standings. And don’t forget that 25 rounds are already behind. However, either the return of European cups (before which the Great Danes were probably saving energy) or the inability to withstand such a race began to affect the results. Last Sunday, Christophe Galtier's charges lost points for the first time after six wins in a row in Ligue 1 and the elimination of Dijon in the cup. Lille did not put the squeeze on Brest at home, completing the match on February 14 with a 0-0 score. Leadership remained, but PSG, which won its game, came close. Nevertheless, Les Dogues showed good results in the Europa League group stage. They scored 11 points and lost only to Celtic in the 6th round.
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Ajax wants to re-establish itself on the international stage. The Jews made a hit a couple of years ago, reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League. But after that, they performed extremely unsuccessfully in the 2019/2020 season. Having lost to Valencia in the last round of the Champions League group stage, the Dutch took 3rd place in the group and dropped to the Europa League, where they were eliminated by modest Getafe. Now history for Ten Hag's charges may repeat itself. Remaining the strongest club in the Eredivisie, Ajax beat only Midtjylland in the Champions League group stage. Liverpool coped with the Jews two times, and they gained only point in matches with Atalanta (although they were winning 2-0 in Milan). In addition, having released Huntelaar, the management of Ajax invited Haller from West Ham to Amsterdam... And they simply forgot to include Sebastian in the roster for the Europa League! Еhen Onana was suspended for a year - he allegedly mixed up the drugs but took them, albeit inadvertently. So, the coach has to field Stekelenburg, who is already 38.
In 2019, the clubs met in the Champions League group stage. Then Ajax was clearly stronger (3-0 at home and 0-2 away). Now there will be no one-sided game. The teams are more equal in strength, and we believe that they will please the fans with goal extravaganza.
Prediction for the match: Over 2.5 goals scored
