Photo courtesy of Ajax’s official Facebook page
The second day of the UCL group stage openers commence later today with a bit of excitement coming our way out of Spain – Barcelona will be hosting Ajax.
This is going to be a game full of excitement but mostly from the home side. This match will be marking the debut of Brazilian international star winger Neymar. He will be starting down the left flank with the world’s best player in Messi starting as the striker. They have tackled the opposition in the La Liga, and now it is time to do the same in Europe.
The Blaugrana (Barca) will be playing their usual possession game to build up the attacks as their midfielders, strikers as well as wing backs will be pushing up to help make matters very difficult for the Dutch side. The center-backs will have some trouble as the Ajax forwards will look to let off a few shots as well as attempt to beat them in the air or from the ground.
Barca currently sit in first place tied with Atletico Madrid as both sides are a perfect 4/4 in the domestic campaign. If they play with that same amount of concentration, desperation and will to win, they can easily pull this one out by at least two or even three goals.
This opponent will arguably be one of the easiest that the home side will face in the group as the other opponents are Celtic (projected to finish third or fourth) and AC Milan who should be finishing as runner-up.
However, let’s remember that Milan have caused them problems before as they managed a 2-2 draw in Spain and Celtic defeated them 2-1 during last season’s group campaign. This year, Barca is expected to lose no more than one tops and will win this group by a mile.
One last note: This will be a fun fixture for Bojan Krkic who is on loan at Ajax from Barcelona.
