Roda JC Kerkrade 1-2 Ajax Amsterdam
 

KERKRADE, January 21 (Eredivisie) - Ajax took full advantage of their game in hand to move three points clear of PSV Eindhoven at the top of the Eredivisie.

Despite having a number of players injured or engaged in international team duty at the African Nations Cup, Ajax came back strongly in the second half and fought back from a goal down to beat Roda JC.

Yannis Anastasiou had put Roda in front after 14 minutes, and they continued to lead until half-time. But Ajax stormed back to win the match with goals from Victor Sikora and Tom Soetaers.

Roda were dominant in the early stages, with both Anastasiou and Sergio testing Maarten Stekelenburg in the Ajax goal.

Their goal owed much to wasteful passing from Wesley Sonck as he gave the ball away to Arouna Kone whose pass found Anastasiou and his finish this time beat the goalkeeper.

With their midfield dominating, Roda could easily have extended their lead by the break, but the closest they came to a second goal was when Kevin van Dessel's long-range shot forced Stekelenburg to make a good save.

Rattled, Ajax came out after half-time and started to pick up the pace of the game.

They needed little time to draw level with Sikora scoring their equaliser after 49 minutees, making the most of good work from Julien Escude and Rafael van der Vaart by rifling the ball home from 20 yards.

Sonck headed against the bar and Vladan Kujovic had to make a good save from Wesley Sneijder as the visitors began to take control of the match.

Their second goal came in the 62nd minute when Soetaers hammered the ball home following a corner.

Roda could have forced a draw in the last minute but Kone's close-range shot was deflected over the bar by Nigel de Jong.
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Good to see that they off to a winning start in this new year. :)
How come Zlatan was not dressed for this game?

Holy crap. That second goal was amazing. I just watched the game live.

great goals indeed..

but Ajax was crap once again from what I've heard..

and Zlatan is ****in injured.. :@ The medical staff are failing time after time. Before last summer they thought rest would be enough to cure his injury, right now he still has that injury. Then, they could have let him be surged in the winter break, but what do the fu¢kers do, NOTHING, till after the winterbreak and now they say you better let yourself be surged... Idiots :mad :mad :mad

I'm getting really pessimistic about becoming champions now. We are playing crap and missing our best and most important player. Above that, we're meeting PSV in a week, who we haven't beaten in the league for quite some years and I don't see how we're gonna beat em now without Zlatan. Not to forget Trabelsi is playing in the Africa Cup and Pienaar is injured too. v/d Vaart is being useless all year, he's living in heaven.. Only if he comes back on earth we have a chance of beating PSV I fear.

Maybe my opinion will change in a few weeks, but as I see it now, we will not become champion, our form is dramatic and in this form we can't miss Zlatan..

IMO PSV are the big favorites to the win the title again....but AJAX will get the second place very easy cuse Feyenoord and AZ just are not good enough to become a danger for them.