Both Inter & Ajax used players who have played with the 1st team and I watched the Ajax vs Barcelona match...It was men against boys...Technically, Barcelona were running circles on Ajax but Ligeon, 20 y.o. (Who played first team), Veltman 20 y.o. (Played first team) and Rits (Who also played first team) were an unfair advantage, IMHO
Truth is Rits should've been sent off on bookings, IMO...He was guilty of some thug tactics and the referee simply never had the courage to do anything about it...After a good 40 minutes into the match, the Juvenil A kids looked sufficiently tamed from the physical advantage the Ajax team had - along with the 2 plus year age difference and first team footballers
It should be academy players, not players who occasionally play first team football as well
They played with the first team yes, they are not part of the first team. They are youth players.
- Ligeon was 19, has played three games in the first team.
- Veltman, has never played with the first team(was a dispensation player because he came back from a long injury and needed playing time, and the -u19 central defender was injured)
- Rits is 18, played with the first team in like 2 games in pre season (so not official, and only played because our most talented midfielder went to Juventus during the winter transfer period)
If you were technically "running circles" around us then you should've won....But you didn't
Youth players always get to deal with teams that are stronger, if you have better players you will win.
I see u14 matches of Ajax when they play against u16, and we still win. It's just a bad excuse for losing. But you obviously find it very important that your youth team wins, which is not what it is about, it's about development of the individual. Who cares which team was more physical? In the end it's about how many players will make it to the first team. Barca were better as a team, but we had the individual class to finish it off.