Rostov v Ajax background
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Article summary
Rostov have an away goal in their favour as they host Ajax with the score at 1-1 following the first leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off tie in Amsterdam.
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Article body
UEFA Champions League debutants Rostov and four-time European Cup winners Ajax go head-to-head in the return leg of their play-off with the tie finely poised at 1-1.
Previous meetings
• The first leg in the Netherlands was Rostov's first competitive encounter with Dutch opponents.
• In that game, Davy Klaassen's 38th-minute penalty cancelled out Christian Noboa's opener for Rostov as the sides drew 1-1.
• Prior to the first leg, Ajax had lost all four of their matches against Russian teams. They went down 3-1 at home and 1-0 away to Spartak Moskva in a 1997/98 UEFA Cup quarter-final and succumbed 1-0 in Amsterdam and 3-0 in Moscow to the same club in a 2010/11 UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie.
Match background
• Ajax eliminated PAOK 3-2 on aggregate to reach the play-offs, Klaassen's 88th-minute strike in the second leg in Greece proving decisive.
• Ajax knocked out Dynamo Kyiv in their only previous UEFA Champions League play-off tie, in 2010/11.
• Rostov accounted for seasoned European contenders Anderlecht in the third qualifying round, triumphing 4-2 on aggregate.
• This is Rostov's first UEFA Champions League campaign; they reached the UEFA Europa League play-offs last season, losing 2-0 on aggregate to Trabzonspor.
Team and coach links
• Ajax defender Heiko Westermann played twice for Germany against Russia in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying; his team won 2-1 at home and 1-0 in Moscow.
• In February 2012, Ajax's Lasse Schöne played for Denmark in a 2-0 friendly loss to Russia.
• Ajax's Jasper Cillessen and Rostov's Noboa met in May 2014, when the Netherlands drew 1-1 in a friendly against Ecuador.
Coach profiles
• Peter Bosz took charge of Ajax this summer following a spell in Israel with Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Capped eight times by the Netherlands, the midfielder spent the best years of his career with Ajax's rivals Feyenoord. He coached a number of Dutch clubs, turning heads with a major overhaul of Vitesse from June 2013 to January 2016.
• Dimitri Kirichenko is in caretaker command at Rostov following the departure of his former coach Kurban Berdyev, who the 39-year-old served as assistant from 2014 to 2016. Former Rostov forward Kirichenko – capped on 12 occasions by Russia – helped Berdyev lead the southern club to a second-place league finish last season.