PSV had not won at Ajax since 2022, and a defender’s first start ended it

PSV had not won a league match at Ajax since November 2022. Every visit to the Johan Cruijff ArenA since had brought them nothing, and Ajax had built a fair chunk of their identity on that. On Saturday it ended, and the man who ended it was a defender playing his first match in the PSV starting eleven. Lutsharel Geertruida met a corner on the half volley in first-half stoppage time, put it over Marc-Andre ter Stegen, and PSV went on to win 3-1.

Ajax were behind inside five minutes

Ivan Perisic is 37 and still gets to the byline. He put a deep cross in from the left, Ruben van Bommel headed it back across the six-yard box, and Ricardo Pepi turned it in from close range before the clock reached five minutes.

Ajax got level on 23 minutes through Tolu Arokodare, who held off his marker and lifted the finish over the goalkeeper for his second Eredivisie goal of the season. For half an hour after that it looked like the home performance Michel has been waiting for. Ajax ended the night with 53 per cent of the ball, 19 shots to PSV’s 13 and six on target to five. Expected goals had it 1.99 to 2.55 the other way, which is the whole match in two numbers: Ajax had the volume, PSV had the chances.

The goal that broke it

Geertruida arrived this summer on loan from RB Leipzig and had been watching from the bench. Peter Bosz put him in for the biggest fixture of the season so far, and he repaid it inside 45 minutes. PSV took a corner, the ball dropped to him on the edge of the area, and he hit it first time and clean. Ter Stegen, who joined Ajax from Barcelona this summer with the Catalans still covering most of his wages, could only watch it go over him.

A goal in first-half stoppage time carries an extra sting, because the team that concedes it has to sit with it through the interval. Ajax came back out and pushed, and the game got nasty around the 80th minute when van Bommel went in late and both benches emptied onto the pitch. The referee handed out five yellow cards. Esmir Bajraktarevic then made it 3-1 in the 92nd minute from a Sven Mijnans pass.

Where the title race sits

PSV are top with 13 points from five, four wins and a draw, and they are the reigning champions. Ajax are fifth on seven points from four. The gap reads six but is really three, because Ajax have a game in hand.

What should worry Michel more than the gap is the 19 shots for one goal against the side he is chasing. He took the job in the summer and inherited a squad that is still being rebuilt, and the pattern in his first month is a team that creates a lot and finishes very little. Ajax will get chances to close this. What they have lost is the match that would have told everyone the chase was on.

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