Brondby it is! Ajax face Danish champions in CL qualifier
04 August: In theory, Dinamo Tbilisi could still
advance to the third preliminary round to face Ajax, but
no-one counted on it. After having won the away leg in
Georgia (
0-2), Brøndby IF also beat Dinamo
in the return leg (
3-1). The Danish champions are now officially the hurdle
Ajax will have to jump in order to achieve Champions League
qualification. The two teams will
first meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Wednesday 10 August,
19:00 CET. The return follows two weeks later in
Amsterdam: Wednesday 24 August, 20:30 CET.
It is the third time for Ajax
to play in the third preliminary round of the Champions League.
In August 2001 it went wrong against Celtic FC from Scotland: a
fine 0-1 win in Glasgow was not
enough to wipe out the dramatic home defeat of 1-3.
Three years later, in August 2003, the Amsterdammers were more
succesful, although it was a close shave: after a very
hard-fought 1-1 draw
in Austria, the modest Grazer AK were beaten by a 'golden
penalty' from Tomás Galásek in the 104th minute
of the return at the Amsterdam ArenA (
2-1).
And now it's Brøndby IF.
Time for an introduction...
The
Club
The
Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening, or
Brøndby IF, is a relatively young club. Established on
03 December 1964, the club was a merger of two sides from the
Copenhagen suburb of Brøndby: Brøndbyvester IF
from West Brøndby, and Brøndbyøster IF
from East Brøndby. Playing at a home ground that
initially had no stands the ambitious club slowly
but steadily climbed to the top of Danish football.
Promotion to the top flight was a fact in 1982.
In their 23 years in the top
division the yellow and blue from Brøndby developed into
the dominant force in Danish football, winning ten Danish
championships and five Cups of Denmark. The first domestic
championship was grabbed in 1985; the tenth one followed this
year, precisely twenty years after the first. Brøndby
are champions of Denmark once every two years on average. Ten
titles and ten runner-up positions in the last twenty seasons
make Brøndby Denmark's number one football club -- by
far.
In those 23 years at the top
flight no less than 28 Brøndby players saw action for
the Danish national team. The list includes the name of Danish
legends such as the Laudrup brothers (Michael and Brian, who
both spent a season at Ajax late in their careers), goalkeeper
Peter Schmeichel and - more recently - Ebbe Sand and Mattias
Jonson.
Today, the first team of
Brøndby IF is coached by Michael Laudrup, who played for
Brøndby and Ajax and was the first 'BIF' player
to be invited for the national team, back in 1982. Key players
in his squad are veteran defender Per Nielsen (433 games
for the club!), midfielder Kim Daugaard (380 games!) and -
a familiar name for followers of Dutch football - Swedish
striker Johan Elmander, previously of Feyenoord and NAC Breda.
Brøndby still have a predominantly Danish roster. Many
of their players won a handful of caps for their national
team.
In 1998 the club had their only
run in the Champions League so far. Their début was a
highlight in club history (a 2-1 win over Bayern München),
but they failed to grab another point after that shock start
and crashed out in the group stage.
This season Brøndby
entered the preliminary stages of the Champions League as the
winners of the Danish 'double'. They were paired with Dinamo
Tbilisi, champions of Georgia. In Tbilisi goals by Morten
Skoubo and Johan Elmander gave Brøndby a 0-2 win.
In Copenhagen two Kasper Lorentzen goals sealed the deal. Jonas
Kamper added one more, so that Dinamo were brushed aside by a
score of 5-1 on aggregate.
The Danish league, the SAS
Liga, is already three games underway and
Brøndby had a splendid start of the season: Midtjylland
(3-0), Silkeborg (2-0) and EfB (2-3) were all beaten. The
club's brace of convincing triumphs over Dinamo
Tbilisi made the first weeks of 2005-2006 even more
satisfying for Michael Laudrup's men.
The official Brøndby IF
website has a limited, but informative English language
section you might want to check out.
The
Stadium
On Wednesday 10 August,
kick-off 19:00 CET, Ajax will play Brøndby at their
Brøndby Stadium on the outskirts of the Danish capital.
The ground was opened in 1965 as a football pitch with a
sand embankment for the spectactors to stand on, but
underwent five major face-lifts over the years and has
developed into a modern all-seater. 29,000 people are allowed
in for domestic league games. For UEFA games the security
measures are more strict: a maximum of 26,000 people can attend
Brøndby vs Ajax.
A fully modernized Brøndby
Stadium. [Photo: Brondby.com - used with permission]
For those interested in
tifo display: Ajax's Vak 410 and the
Brøndby fanatics both know how it should be done.
Take a peek at the photos taken at
Brøndby Stadium prior to Brøndby vs
Barcelona in
February 2004.
Ajax versus Danish
opposition
Ajax and Brøndby never
met. Not in UEFA competition, not in a friendly. The only time
Ajax faced Danish opposition in UEFA competition was a
traumatic experience for the Amsterdammers. Ajax were paired
with Brøndby's local rivals, FC Copenhagen, in the
second round of the UEFA Cup in the fall of 2001. On 18 October
Ajax settled for a 0-0 draw at Copenhagen's
Parken. Two weeks later, on 01 November, nearly 37,000
Ajax fans at the ArenA saw the tragedy unfold: a single goal by
Niclas Jensen knocked Ajax out.
Reactions
Ajax.nl published the first reaction of Ajax boss Danny
Blind a couple of hours after the draw. Blind acknowledged the
fact that the opponent might in theory be Dinamo Tbilisi ("we
will follow them, too, just in case they pull off a
stunt"), but almost exclusively reflected on Brøndby IF
and the fact that he will meet his former Ajax team-mate
Michael Laudrup again. Blind and Laudrup played for Ajax in
1997-1998. "I know Michael as a very nice person and a
superb footballer. It will be very nice to meet him
again," Blind said.
The Ajax head-coach feels that Brøndby are "not
an easy opponent", but that Ajax "mustn't complain": "I am not
saying we're extremely happy with this draw, or that we
should beat them no matter what, but it could have been worse.
Denmark is easy to get to. Which is nice, because we want to go
there and see them play. The facilities are excellent and it's
also a good thing that we play away first. (...) Brøndby
play in a sort of 4-3-3 formation, albeit with wingers coming
from midfield. It's a side that wants to play football, which
is good for us. We're going for qualification and won't settle
for less." (MP)
Sources: Brondby.com, Ajax.nl, UEFA.com
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