Ajax v Panathinaikos

Ajax vs Panathinaikos Preview

Ajax will head into Thursday night's 2nd leg of their 3rd qualifying round tie in the Europa League against Greek visitors, Panathinaikos, in confident mood having collected a 1-0 home win against Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie, while Panathinaikos were not in action over the weekend and they now face a tough looking excursion to the Netherlands where they trail their hosts by a 1-0 margin.

The Dutch hosts not only registered all three points on the weekend in the domestic top flight but this victory became an eighth win on the trot for Francesco Farioli's side, so confidence will no doubt be high amongst the Ajax camp ahead of Thursday night's clash, especially as Ajax registered a comprehensive 4-1 win on aggregate against Vojvodina in the previous qualifying round of the Europa League.

Six of Ajax's last eight wins on the bounce have also been recorded on home soil at their Johan Cruijff Arena which includes 1-0 wins against Vojvodina and the aforementioned victory over Heerenveen, while the bigger picture shows Ajax have lost just once in their last 14 matches in all competitions.

Results on home soil are even more impressive as the Dutch giants have slipped to just a single defeat in their previous 19 games at their Johan Cruijff Arena, including winning their last six home games on the trot.

Panathinaikos now face a very tough task indeed of overhauling their Dutch visitors in this upcoming return leg at the Johan Cruijff Arena as the Greek outfit find themselves needing to score at least two unanswered goals if they are to progress through to the play-off stage in this season's Europa League competition.

Prior to last week's disappointing 1-0 defeat on home soil at their Olympiako Stadio Spyros Louis in Athens, Panathinaikos had racked up four wins on the trot which consisted of picking up wins in pre-season friendlies against AEK Larnaca and Maccabi Netanya respectively.

In addition, Panathinaikos had also recorded home and away wins against Bulgarian club Botev Plovdiv in 2-1 and 4-0 victories respectively which had earned the Greek visitors a place in this 3rd qualifying round.

The bigger picture though shows Panathinaikos have managed to collect just five wins in their last 12 matches in all competitions which also includes slipping to five defeats as well.

Ajax v Panathinaikos Verdict

Four of Ajax's last six home wins on the trot have also seen the hosts keep clean sheets as well, thus underlining how tough this upcoming trip is likely to be for Panathinaikos. It is also worth pointing out that Panathinaikos have lost three out of their last four outings on the road overall, and they now face an in-form and confident Ajax in their own backyard here on Thursday night.

Therefore, our main bet will be Ajax win @ 1.75

Other side bets worth considering:

Ajax win & Under 2.5 goals @ 4.50

Correct Score: Ajax 1-0 @ 8.00