Hajduk opened their Conference League group stage with a 2-1 win over Ajax at Poljud on Thursday, as goals from Bamba and Šotiček saw off the four-time European champions in a match halted for 12 minutes by Torcida’s flares.
Hajduk opened their UEFA Conference League group against Ajax at Poljud on Thursday.
Hajduk reached the group stage for the first time in 16 years after eight qualifying matches. Their European campaign began in the first qualifying round of the Europa League, where they knocked out Slovakia’s Žilina before going out to Cypriot side Pafos over two legs in the next round. That sent Hajduk into Conference League qualifying, where they comfortably beat Lithuania’s Žalgiris and then got past Poland’s Raków after extra time in both legs.
The draw paired Hajduk with Ajax for their opening league-phase match. The two clubs have a long history. They have met three times in friendlies and four times in competitive matches. Hajduk won all three friendlies, each played at the Stari Plac: 3-0 in 1974, 1-0 in 1977, and 4-2 in 1979, shortly before the club moved to Poljud.
Their first competitive meeting came in the first round of the 1993 Cup Winners’ Cup. With war in Croatia, Hajduk played their home leg at Ljubljana’s Bežigrad stadium and won 1-0, but Ajax won the return leg 6-0. The sides met again in the quarter-finals of the 1995 Champions League. The first leg at Poljud finished goalless, and Ajax, who went on to win the competition, took the second leg 3-0.
Hajduk have never lost to Ajax in Split, across four meetings.
Lineups
Hajduk: Silić, Hrgović, Hadžikadunić, Marešić, Acapandie, Fayad, Del Moral, Dalisson, Šotiček, Bamba, Šego
Ajax: Ter Stegen, Kehrer, Baas, Bouwman, Torrents, Amrabat, Klaassen, Brandt, Ouazane, Tsygankov, Tolu
Match report
The match got under way at Poljud with Ajax in possession and Hajduk sitting in a mid-block, looking to build their attacks down the right through Bamba.
Ajax almost scored within seven minutes. They broke quickly, and Arokodare got clear of Hadžikadunić to run through on Silić. The Hajduk goalkeeper was already on the ground, but Hadžikadunić recovered with a superb last-ditch sliding challenge to make up for his own mistake.
Hajduk began to push higher. In the 11th minute Šego sent Bamba away down the wing, but Torrents stopped his run, and from the 12th minute the home side were pressing aggressively whenever Ajax had the ball. A minute later Dalisson won possession and tried to play Bamba through on goal, but the Ajax defense reacted well.
Bamba won Hajduk’s first corner in the 17th minute, and their first shot followed straight after. Hrgović timed his run to beat the offside trap onto a Dalisson through ball and shot from a tight angle into a defender, leaving Šego frustrated that he had not crossed. By then the Poljud stands were shaking with the noise from the home supporters.
Šotiček sent in a dangerous cross in the 23rd minute, but Šego was penalized for a foul in the challenge for the ball. A minute later Dalisson beat his man with a fine dribble and shot from around 20 meters, a comfortable save for Ter Stegen.
Hajduk kept coming. In the 29th minute Hrgović played a superb ball over the top for Šotiček, but Klaasen read it well. Ajax countered in the 35th minute, only for Arokodare to be caught offside.
Two minutes later Hajduk took a deserved lead with a deadly counter-attack. Klaassen was dispossessed, Šotiček played in Bamba, and he finished to make it 1-0 in the 37th minute! The stands erupted into a chant of “Ja te volim Hajduče” (“I love you, Hajduk”).
Ajax looked for a quick response, and in the 43rd minute Klaassen’s header from eight or nine metres was saved by Silić.
Hajduk kept up their high press after the restart, but Ajax punished them as soon as they dropped deeper. In the 53rd minute, with Hajduk sitting in front of their own penalty area, Kehrer crossed and Klaassen timed his run to drive the ball in under the bar for 1-1.
The equalizer stood for only three minutes. In the 56th minute Hajduk won the ball back with more excellent pressing. Šego pounced on a dreadful pass from Torrents and, rather than shoot from a promising position, laid it off to Šotiček, who took a touch and scored to make it 2-1!
Šego was booked in the 60th minute. Three minutes later, Bamba beat Torrents and tried to go past Baas as well, but the defender stopped him and cleared the ball out of the box. Bamba went down, but there was never a case for a penalty.
Hajduk’s tempo dropped slightly as the hour mark passed, and García turned to his bench, bringing on Dendoncker for Del Moral in the 70th minute. A minute later, Dalisson sent in a dangerous cross, but it struck Šego and rebounded straight into Ter Stegen’s hands.
Ajax made a quadruple substitution in the 76th minute, as Leonardo, Gloukh, Rosa and Mokio replaced Cigankov, Klaassen, Ouazane and Torrents.
Two minutes later, the match was stopped. Torcida lit flares in the 78th minute, and the smoke became so thick that nothing on the pitch could be seen, so the players were taken to the dressing rooms under UEFA protocol. Even then, the fans kept letting off bangers.
In the 86th minute, the stadium announcer warned that the match was at risk of being abandoned.
Play finally resumed after a 12-minute stoppage, on the understanding that any further pyrotechnics would see the match abandoned. The clock picked up from the 78th minute.
Ajax almost made the most of it. In the 80th minute, Gloukh struck the crossbar from a cut-back, though the flag was already up for offside.
The visitors were now much more dangerous and pinning Hajduk back. In the 84th minute, García made a double change, bringing on Melnjak and Šutalo for Hrgović and goalscorer Bamba.
Hajduk were defending desperately as Ajax laid siege to their goal in the closing minutes. In the 90th minute, Bouwman shot over from around ten metres in a promising position, and at least five minutes of stoppage time were signaled.
García used his final changes in the first minute of added time, bringing on Van Hoorenbeck and Martin for Fayad and Šego. Hajduk held firm through the remaining minutes, and at the final whistle they had beaten Ajax 2-1 to start their first league-phase campaign in 16 years with a win!
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