The pitch at the Yanmar Stadion didn’t help matters. "The field wasn’t great. It was quite dry. The players mentioned it after the warm-up. We still tried to play our style of football, but in terms of precision, this was one of our worst matches. Meanwhile, Almere City is in a good period right now."
In the closing stages, the home team had the upper hand, but Ajax managed to hold on defensively. "At a certain point, we had to defend our lead deep in our own penalty area. The players showed great commitment in doing so."
Almere City's biggest chance came after a defensive error, when Matheus came far off his line. However, Farioli didn’t think it was a communication issue. "Matheus expected the ball to bounce towards him, but due to the pitch, it got stuck. In the Johan Cruijff ArenA against Go Ahead Eagles, he did the same thing, and it worked out fine. Here, the ball didn’t move the same way because of the field."
