Ajax v Legia Warszawa background
Friday, February 17, 2017
Article summary
Having eliminated Legia Warszawa at this stage in 2014/15, Ajax will attempt to repeat the feat when they tackle the Polish club in the second leg of a last-32 tie finely poised after a goalless first leg.
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Article body
Ajax and Legia Warszawa will meet in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie with nothing between the teams after a 0-0 draw in Poland.
• Ajax defender Kenny Tete was sent off six minutes from time in the Polish capital on 16 February. Justin Kluivert, the 17-year-old son of former Ajax forward Patrick, made his European debut as a substitute but was soon withdrawn after the dismissal of his team-mate.
Previous meetings
• Poland striker Arkadiusz Milik scored three goals against his compatriots as Frank de Boer's Ajax beat Henning Berg's Legia 1-0 at home and 3-0 away in the 2014/15 round of 32. Current Ajax defender Nick Viergever scored the other goal.
• The teams for their last Warsaw meeting on 26 February 2015 were:
Ajax: Cillessen, Van Rhijn, Boilesen, Van der Hoorn, Klaassen (Sinkgraven* 82), Kishna (Schöne 74), Milik, El Ghazi*, Serero* (Riedewald* 71), Viergever*, Bazoer*.
Legia: Kuciak, Dossa Júnior, Jodłowiec*, Guilherme*, Masłowski, Kucharczyk*, Vrdoljak, Rzeźniczak*, Broź*, Żyro, Sá.
* registered to play for the club in this season's competition
• Legia's nine games against Dutch sides have ended W2 D2 L5 (W1 D0 L3 in the Netherlands). Ajax's only encounters with Polish teams are those previous matches against Legia.
Form guide
• Ajax advanced through the group stage unbeaten (W4 D2) after losing to Rostov in the UEFA Champions League play-offs. They are unbeaten in nine European home games (W4 D5), including wins in the most recent three.
• Ajax are in the round of 32 for a record seventh time but have only reached the last 16 on two of those occasions.
• Legia have won only one of their last eight continental fixtures – a 1-0 success against Sporting CP on UEFA Champions League matchday six.
• Ajax last made it through the round of 32 in 2014/15, when they beat Legia en route to an away-goals loss to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. They lifted the UEFA Cup in 1992 to complete a full set of major UEFA trophies; they were European champions in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1995 and claimed the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1987.
• Ajax eliminated Legia the last time they reached the round of 32. Legia have not triumphed in a springtime European tie since 1990/91, when they overcame Sampdoria before losing to Manchester United in the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup – the closest they have come to winning a UEFA competition.
Links and trivia
• The journey from Warsaw to Amsterdam is around 1,100km.
• Ajax need four more goals to reach 600 in UEFA club competition. With 596 in 365 games, they have averaged around 1.63 goals per game so far.
• Ajax (1992) are one of seven former UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League winners in the round of 32, along with Tottenham Hotspur (1972, 1984), Borussia Mönchengladbach (1975 & 1979), Anderlecht (1983), Schalke (1997), Zenit (2008) and Shakhtar Donetsk (2009).
• Legia are one of eight domestic champions involved in the round of 32, along with Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL), APOEL (CYP), København (DEN), Olympiacos (GRE), Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR), Astra Giurgiu (ROU) and Beşiktaş (TUR).
• Legia's Georgian international midfielder Valeri Kazaishvili played under Ajax boss Peter Bosz at Vitesse (2013–16).
The coaches
• A Dutch title winner as a midfielder with Feyenoord, Bosz returned from Israel to take charge of Ajax in May 2016. Bosz has managed Heracles and Vitesse in the Netherlands, also briefly coaching Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
• Coach since September 2016, Jacek Magiera first joined Legia as a player in 1997, spending the remainder of his career in Warsaw and joining the club's coaching staff after retiring. He has a degree in history, his masters' thesis having covered the origins of football club badges.
Penalty shoot-outs
• Ajax's record in five UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L4:
L 4-2 A v Steaua (2012/13 UEFA Europa League round of 32)
L 4-2 N v Juventus (1995/96 UEFA Champions League final)
W 4-3 N v Grêmio (1995 European/South American Cup)
L 4-2 A v Bohemians Praha (1984/85 UEFA Cup second round)
L 5-3 A v Levski (1975/76 UEFA Cup third round)
• Legia have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.