Ajax welcome Marseille to the Johan Cruijff Arena this Thursday for the first game in their Europa League campaign. Joining them in Group B are Brighton and AEK Athens in a challenging group.
Ajax currently sit 12th in the Eredivisie with a tough start to the season. In their four games this season, Ajax have just one win, two draws and one loss, leaving them on five points a huge seven points away from top of the table. The one win came opening weekend in the dominant 4 - 1 win over Heracles, however, Ajax then went on to draw the next two games, a 2 - 2 draw against Excelsior and a 0 - 0 draw against Fortuna Sittard. Most recently, Ajax slumped to a 3 - 1 loss to Twente.
The journey to the Europa League was a little tough for Ajax. After finishing third in the Eredivisie last season, Ajax went straight into the Play-off round for the Europa League. There Ajax drew Bulgarian side Ludogorets. In the first leg Mohammed Kudus impressed with a hattrick with Brian Brobbey joining him on the scoresheet for a 4 - 1 win, Olivier Verdon converting a penalty for Ludogorets. The second leg at home saw Ludogorets’ Matias Tissera score the only goal in the 1- 0 win, but it wasn’t enough as Ajax took the 4 - 2 win on aggregate and the spot in Group B.
Marseille are sitting in third in Ligue 1 currently with two wins and three draws and nine points. The two wins came against Reims and Brest, Marseille beating Reims 2 - 1 and grabbing a 2 - 0 win at home. However, Marseille have suffered three draws already this season, a 2 - 2 draw with ten man Metz, a 1 - 1 draw against ten man Nantes and most recently a 0 - 0 draw with Toulouse.
The Olympians had a slightly different path into the Europa League. Marseille started in the Third qualifying round of the Champions League where they met Panathinaikos. The first leg saw Geoffrey Kondogbia sent off in the 65th minute for Marseille as Bernard scored in the 83rd minute to give Panathinaikos the 1 - 0 win. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in the first half for Marseille, but Fotis Ioannidis converted his penalty in extra time to send the tie to penalties. Matteo Guendouzi missed the first penalty and with Panathinaikos scoring all five penalties, Marseille lost 5 - 3. However, a loss in that particular round meant that Marseille went straight into the Group stage of the Europa League.
Ajax and Marseille have only met twice in the Europa League, with Marseille winning once and the teams drawing once. This came back in the 2008/09 season in the Round of 16. Benoit Cheyrou and Mamadou Niang scored for Marseille as they beat Ajax in the first leg 2 - 1 with Luis Suarez scoring for the Dutch side. The second leg was a 2 - 2 draw with Eyong Enoh and Miralem Sulejmani on the scoresheet for Ajax and Niang and Tyrone Mears scoring for Porto.