Manchester United vs Ajax Betting Pick | Europa League

Europa League

2012-02-23 - Manchester United vs Ajax

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Manchester United v Ajax
Football: European Europa League, Last 32 Second Leg
Thursday 23 February 2012 - Kick Off 8:05pm
Manchester United lead 2-0 from the First Leg
This game is live on TV

Manchester United

Most Manchester United fans will feel this tie is effectively over already following the 0-2 win at the Amsterdam Arena last week, but Sir Alex Ferguson refuses to let complacency become an issue and has warned his side to play their 'normal game'. This might not be the competition that Sir Alex wanted to win at the start of the season, but his pride means United are surely going to have a go at doing so now they are in it.

With the Premier League taking a weekend off, and Manchester United already out of the FA Cup, there have been no games for the home team since the first leg in Amsterdam. They remain fully in the hunt for a 20th League title, but winning the first Europa League in the clubs history would still be seen as an achievement. United are just 1-2-0 at Old Trafford in Europe this season, although those games were played in the Champions League.

The Red Devils have now lost just 1 of their last 8 games in all competitions and they will be looking to extend their run to 4 consecutive wins at Old Trafford since the surprise 2-3 loss to Blackburn Rovers on New Years Eve. United have conceded just 1 goal in their last 3 games at Old Trafford and will look to that defensive record to ensure progress to the last 16 tonight.

Wayne Rooney has been ruled out with a throat infection and is in a race to be fit for the game at Norwich City on Sunday. Antonio Valencia was ruled out until the end of next month after being injured in Amsterdam last week. The likes of Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand could be rested.

I would not be surprised if the United team had the following feel tonight: De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Evans, Evra, Nani, Cleverley, Pogba, Young, Berbatov and Hernandez.

Ajax

It is hard to remember that Ajax finished as Champions of Europe as recently as 1995 as they looked far short of that quality last week and have not really made an impact in European football for the last few seasons. The team still play the pretty passing football that they have been known for over the last four decades, but the lack of genuine quality was a concern.

The off the field problems in the boardroom has caused plenty of unrest in Amsterdam all season, while the performances on the pitch have not really helped take the fans minds off other matters. Ajax are 5th in the Eredivisie, just 5 points off the leaders, but it hasn't been a great season so far. They are 1-1-1 away from home in Europe so far this season, although those games were Champions League games.

The team won 4-1 at home over the weekend which would have raised spirits considering they were just 1-1-5 in their previous 7 games in all competitions, a run that included a 4-2 hammering at rivals Feyenoord. Ajax also won their last away game in the League having failed to win their previous 2.

Frank de Boer still has a number of injury worries in the squad, but there are not too many new members in the treatment room following the game last week. Andre Ooijer may return to add his experience to the defence tonight.

Head to Head

These two teams have met just once before at Old Trafford, that coming in the 1976/77 UEFA Cup.

On that occasion, United won 2-0 before travelling to Amsterdam for the second leg.

Prediction

Manchester United are in the almost perfect position that they wanted to be in after the first leg and that is being able to rest some starters, give playing time to some of the fringe players and preparing for the Premier League game at Carrow Road while holding a healthy advantage from Amsterdam.

With that in mind, Sir Alex Ferguson is going to make a number of changes to his first team and we will have a slightly different feel from the team that took to the field at Ajax last week.

This should give Ajax a chance to at least earn some respect from this game as I feel United will be more concerned with keeping them out than going on and trying to secure a big home win.

We have seen this in the past after impressive away performances in the Champions League, with big examples being the 1-0 wins over Lyon and Roma (1-1 and 0-2 United from first leg), the 2-1 wins over Marseille and Chelsea (0-0 and 0-1 United from first leg).

A further point of interest is that United have only won 2 of their last 10 home games in Europe by more than 1 goal and this all points to taking Ajax with the handicap head-start to at least keep this game close.

It may be a disjointed performance from United with a number of first team players likely to be absent, and the important point will be for the Red Devils to keep a clean sheet.

We may also see United making changes if they are ahead in the game with the game against Norwich in mind and there is the chance that Ajax will do enough to salvage some pride with a positive result here.