Ten men Ajax beat Barcelona

Ten-man Ajax
ended a run of nine
straight defeats to
Spanish opposition
by
beating Barcelona
2-1 in Champions
League Group H on
Tuesday night.
Thulani Serero
opened the scoring for the hosts in the 19th
minute with a composed finish from six yards
out before Danny Hoesen extended Ajax's
lead just before the break with a neat piece of
skill inside the penalty area.
Barcelona was gifted a way back into the
game when Joel Veltman was dismissed for
bringing down Neymar inside the penalty
area and Xavi scored from the spot but the
Liga champions were unable to make the
most of their numerical advantage.
The win moves Ajax onto seven points with
one game remaining and the club's hopes of
progressing to the last 16 rest on beating AC
Milan at San Siro, while defeat for the
Blaugrana was the club's first of the season
and denied coach Gerardo Martino a share of
Pep Guardiola's club record of 21 games
unbeaten.
Frank de Boer had the luxury of being able to
name an unchanged side from Saturday's 3-0
win over Heracles and there was a further
boost as Lerin Duarte returned to the squad
as a substitute.
The visitors made four changes, with Carles
Puyol, Martin Montoya, Alex Song and Xavi
all starting for Martino's men.
Despite a confident start, Ajax was lucky to
survive a swift Barcelona counterattack in the
14th minute, as Veltman made a crucial
block to deny Cesc Fabregas.
It was all one-way traffic for the remainder of
the first half, though, and the home side got
its reward for continuing to pressurise
Barcelona at a high tempo as Serero opened
the scoring with his first Champions League
goal five minutes later.
The South Africa international ghosted into
the penalty area to meet Ricardo van Rhijn's
cross from the right and the 23-year-old
calmly side-footed the ball past Jose Manuel
Pinto.
After Lasse Schone had missed two chances,
Ajax finally doubled its lead just before the
break through Hoesen. Pinto saved well from
Viktor Fischer and Hoesen latched onto the
loose ball, lifted it past Puyol and fired into
the bottom corner.
The game was turned on its head four
minutes after the break as Van Rhijn played a
loose pass back to Veltman. Neymar pounced
but he was brought down by the defender just
inside the area.
The 21-year-old was given his marching
orders and Xavi made no mistake from the
spot to halve the deficit.
Jasper Cillessen kept the hosts in the game
with a good save from Neymar on the hour
and a resilient Ajax defence managed to hold
on for a vital win.