Veltman targets six points against Ajax

Joel Veltman still has a lot of affection for Ajax, the club he first represented at the age of ten before going on to make 246 appearances for the Dutch giants.

Bruce Talbot

2023-10-26T06:00:00Z

Joel Veltman says Albion must target two wins against former club Ajax.

But he’s an Albion player now and says six points have to be the target in our home-and-away Europa League fixtures against his old club.

It will be an emotional night at the Amex for Joel as he comes up against the club he left in 2019 to join Albion, although he admits that the return game at the Amsterdam Arena on 9 November will be even more special.

“We play two games against Ajax and we want to have six points,” he said. “It’s funny, I did say when the draw happened that we would finish first and them second and that would be quite a nice thing.

“The draw was obviously really special personally for me. Loads of people are talking to me about tickets, how special the game is. But we need to get six points.”

Europa League Group B is shaping up to be one of the most hard-fought in this season’s competition with three draws and Albion’s 3-2 home defeat to AEK Athens the only positive result so far.

Veltman admits Albion may have been caught slightly off guard against AEK, when we conceded three goals from set-pieces despite twice coming from behind to level. Against Marseille we went 2-0 down but goals from Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro in the second half earned us a point.

“Maybe, we were surprised [by AEK Athens]. It could be because we less experienced playing against teams that you don’t know how they will play.

“Athens were really compact and defended really well. I think it was three set-pieces and they scored three goals, so we have to do better than that.

“Marseille was a bit difficult too. We made one mistake in the first half which killed us a bit. We know if we don’t make mistakes, we can win every game. It’s something we have been working on a lot.”

Ajax arrive at the Amex in turmoil but Veltman is aware they are still a very dangerous opponent. A 4-3 defeat to Utrecht on Sunday left them second from bottom in the Eredivisie and the following day head coach Maurice Steijn left by mutual consent. His assistant Hedwiges Maduro will be in caretaker charge on Thursday.

“For them also nothing to lose and they can just play freely,” added Veltman. “They fired the Gaffer and in the Eredivisie they are not doing great. They have two points in the Europa League and we have one. For us, I feel we have to win, big time. Ajax at home - we need to get a result.”