Ajax 2-2 Excelsior result, stats and report

Thirty-three shots. Eighty-one per cent possession. Nine corners to zero. Thirteen accurate crosses. Ajax had everything in this game except the three points. Excelsior had four shots, two on target, and walked away with a draw. That is not bad luck. That is a failure of standards. End of.

What Happened

Julian Brandt put Ajax in front on 32 minutes with a right-foot finish, assisted by Kasper Dolberg. Ajax looked comfortable, in control, and on course for another routine home win. Then Excelsior pulled level just before the break, Lennard Hartjes finishing from a right-foot shot in first-half stoppage time. One shot on target. One goal. That is the kind of thing that should not happen to a team sitting on 81 per cent possession.

The second half started with Ajax making changes. Tolu Arokodare came on for Dolberg on 62 minutes, and two minutes later he put Ajax back in front, finishing from a right-foot shot assisted by Oscar Gloukh. For a moment it looked like the home side would see it out. They did not. Aymen Sliti equalised for Excelsior at 62 minutes, assisted by Irakli Yegoian, and the game finished 2-2. Excelsior scored two goals from four shots. Ajax scored two goals from thirty-three shots. I do not need a laptop to tell me which defence did its job.

The Stats Tell a Story Ajax Will Not Want to Hear

Ajax hit the woodwork three times. They had 27 key passes. Their pass accuracy was 92 per cent. Excelsior had a pass accuracy of 67 per cent, 197 passes in total, and zero corners. The thing is, none of that matters when you cannot convert pressure into points. Dominance without a clean sheet and three points is just possession with better highlights.

Excelsior's goalkeeper made six saves. Ajax's goalkeeper made zero. That is not a stat that reflects well on an Excelsior side that barely existed in an attacking sense. Their goalkeeper was their best player and he kept them in the contest long enough to take something from it. Ajax should have buried this game in the first half.

Ajax also had two injuries during the match. Caio Henrique came off as early as the 23rd minute, replaced by Owen Wijndal. That disrupted their shape at a time when they should have been building momentum before Brandt's opener. It is not an excuse. You have a full squad for a reason.

Mentality and Accountability

Listen, I am not going to sit here and say Ajax were bad. They were not bad. They were dominant in every area that should matter. What I will say is that a team with this level of control has to win this game. It is not about quality going forward, it is about the basics at the back. You are 2-1 up against a side with 19 per cent possession. You see it out. You do your job. You do not switch off and allow a team with three goal attempts to score twice.

Oscar Gloukh was booked on 85 minutes for an argument. Irakli Yegoian received the same on the other side. That is two players losing their heads when the game was already gone. That tells you something about the temperature on that pitch in the final minutes. Ajax were rattled. A team that had spent 90 minutes in the opponent's half was rattled because they could not hold a lead against one of the league's smaller sides.

Accountability matters here. The substitutions disrupted the shape. Arokodare came on and scored within two minutes of his introduction, which shows desire and sharpness. But the defensive organisation fell apart around the same time. Sliti scored at 62 minutes, immediately after Arokodare's goal. Ajax took the lead and immediately switched off. That is a mentality issue. That is unacceptable at this level.

Excelsior Deserve Credit, But Not Too Much

To be fair, Excelsior showed real desire when they needed it. They had lost to Utrecht six days earlier and came here as heavy underdogs. They made 20 interceptions to Ajax's six. They won 36 duels. They fouled 12 times because they had to, because competing physically was the only way they could stay in the match. That is not a criticism. That is exactly what you do when you are outgunned. You compete. You stay organised. You take your chances when they come.

Sliti, who scored their second, was replaced on 71 minutes after doing his job. Hartjes, who levelled before half-time, got his goal from a situation Ajax should never have allowed to develop. But Excelsior took those moments. Credit where it is due. They showed more desire in their four shots than Ajax showed in their final twenty minutes with a lead to protect.

What Ajax Must Fix

In their five most recent Eredivisie matches before this game, Ajax had kept a clean sheet in just one. Both teams scored in four of those five. That is a pattern. Conceding goals is one thing. Conceding goals like this, from a side with almost nothing going forward, is something else entirely. The back four has to do better. The holding midfielders have to do better. When you have the ball 81 per cent of the time and you still cannot keep a clean sheet, the problem is not effort going forward. The problem is concentration. It is the basics. Ajax were better in every area except the one that ended up costing them two points.

They had beaten Willem II 5-1 and Fortuna Sittard 5-1 in their two matches before this. They came in here expecting the same. Excelsior made them work for it and then made them pay for taking their foot off the gas. That is a lesson. Whether Ajax learn from it is what defines whether this is a blip or a problem.

Two points dropped. At home. Against Excelsior. That is unacceptable. End of.