Ajax vs. Marseille: Preview and betting tips

Ajax will kick off the new Europa League season with a clash against Marseille, who will most likely face them for a play-off spot. Neither team is in ideal form yet, but it should still be an interesting spectacle.

Ajax left a number of important supports in the summer and new talents have come in their place, but they are still somewhat searching and the new coach Maurice Steijn is still putting everything together.

Ajax clearly beat Heracles 4-1 to start the season, but then came two league draws against Excelsior and Fortuna, before losing to Twente 3-1. In the meantime, the Dutch club managed a double-duel with Ludogorets (1: 4 and 0: 1).

Marseille looks very good on paper, but the results so far are also definitely not what the fans expected. So far in Ligue 1, coach Marcelin’s charges have collected 9 points for 2 wins and 3 draws.

The French team got into the Europa League by failing to make it through the double-duel with Panathinaikos, losing twice and instead of the Champions League they went down a level.

In this group we also have Brighton, who are keeping up with the best in the Premier League and last time managed to beat Manchester United 3-1 at Old Trafford, and AEK.

So we are talking about a group in which every point will be very valuable and this duel will tell a lot, because the biggest favourite to qualify for the playoffs is clearly the aforementioned English club.

The Spanish coach Marcelino has a number of interesting and also experienced players at his disposal, complemented by talented youngsters, while Ajax is traditionally a team full of young guns, who, however, still need time to acclimatize, as the last matches clearly show.

The confrontation between these two teams will be important, as mentioned, both will have a tough time in the Brighton competition. Thus, neither team will want to lose, which could and should favour a draw, which could be insured by a handicap, with which I would personally lean more towards the away side.

Betting Tip | Draw

Source: Sofascore, Whoscored