Maybe we should have known from the beginning that this would take a while.
Panathinaikos’ Argentine midfielder Daniel Mancini took the first penalty of the shootout against Ajax as the Greek side equalized late on to force Thursday night’s The Europa League qualifying rounds went into a penalty shootout.
However, although he technically did “take” the penalty kick, he played the ball with all his strength and may have just whistled the ball. A woeful penalty saved with ease by 40-year-old goalkeeper Remko Paswell was the most fitting way to start a shootout that was filled with drama, low class and occasional outbursts of excellence .
There were 34 penalties in total. We probably don’t need to tell you that this is a UEFA match record. A total of 25 goals were scored, 2 of which went completely wide of the target, and 7 of which were saved – 5 by Paswell and 2 by Panathinaikos goalkeeper Bartlomie Drago Fitzgerald made the save.
Ajax finished second on penalties and had five “match points” – penalties that would win the game – but struggled on the first four before claiming victory. .
Forward Brian Brombie was substituted by Ajax in extra time, perhaps not explicitly for a penalty (he came on with 10 minutes left), but certainly for the shootout. He was one of 12 players who had to take two penalties. He missed them both. More importantly, both of them are potential key players.
Missing a penalty in a shootout brings deep shame and embarrassment, but you get over it. Missing two could haunt you for years. Missed out on two potential winners…well, at least his team ended up winning.
After Mancini’s first (horrible) penalty, the next eight were awarded to Steven Bergwijn, Kenneth Taylor (both Ajax) and the former Leicester City winger Tate (Panathinaikos) and others cleverly took the penalty.
Then things started to get weird. Brombie stepped up and it seemed he was expected to solve the problem quickly: he was not a regular penalty taker but had only missed one penalty in his senior career and was a youth player. Training players, his free throw percentage is very high. With the home fans chanting his name, he puffed out his cheeks and hit the ball to the goalkeeper’s right with reasonable force… and Dragowski saved it. The air left the stadium, as if it had suddenly become a spaceship’s airlock.
Is it “morally” possible to miss a penalty you actually scored? If so, that’s what Greece’s next receiver, Dutch midfielder Toni Verhena, did. He was a product of Feyenoord’s youth teams and spent eight seasons with the first team… which is another way of saying Ajax fans hate him.
He fired a low kick to Paswell’s right, and the goalkeeper quickly crouched down and caught the ball with one hand (maybe an arm?)…
… But the ball spurted out from under him and briefly looked like it might stay outside – so much so that Ajax fans began to celebrate – but ultimately sailed across the goal and trickled into the opposite corner.
After Wechner heard what the home fans were thinking, he decided to give back by silencing the stands. Will this come back to haunt him later in the penalty shootout? Of course not.
Ajax’s next player is Jordan Henderson, perhaps as a reminder that he still plays for them. Henderson and penalties are not particularly good friends: it’s easy to forget because England won, but he missed out on a penalty shootout against Colombia at the 2018 World Cup and has only featured for club or country since. Contributed a competitive penalty in normal time…and missed England’s friendly against Romania ahead of Euro 2020. Happily, he had no problems here, side-footing straight into the middle of the net.
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Then, another mistake: Nemanja Maksimovic made a mistake for Panathinaikos that was brilliantly saved by Paswell. But Ajax again failed to capitalize on their chance, with Bertrand Traore’s shot deflected high and wide, which is difficult to do from 12 yards. It was after this penalty that a brawl broke out in the center circle and both teams became testy in the extended shootout, with referee Chris Kavanagh issuing a yellow card to one player from each side.
The next penalty was a low shot from Panathinaikos’ Sverrir Ingason, but it was too close to Paswell, who made his third save. At this stage, he and Dragovsky across from each other hugged each other and started laughing: Yes, now it’s getting silly. Things got even stupider when Ajax missed another chance to win, as Dragowski saved a ball from Ajax defender Yuri Bas.
It was a penalty shootout that no one seemed particularly eager to win. On the touchline, Ajax coach Francesco Farioli’s expression suggested he was watching himself undergo open-heart surgery. His counterpart Diego Alonso looks the part.
However, the next 14 penalty kicks were all very exciting and the goalkeeper had almost no chance. They kicked the ball themselves and scored with ease, which only heightened the tension. After all, 14 penalties are already half of a normal penalty shootout. Panathinaikos’ substitutes and coach were warned for pitch intrusion and had their arms locked on the touchline. At one point, Farioli retreated from the sideline and sat alone on the bench, his aorta pulsing about two feet in front of him.
But then, Ajax had another chance to win the title: Panathinaikos centre-back Filip Mladenovic tried to seize the power, but was too close to Paswell, who beat him The left side saved the ball.
Redemption appears. As he had done earlier in the penalty shootout, Brombie took his stride, knowing that if he scored, Ajax would advance. He stepped forward, puffing out his cheeks again, determined not to make the same mistake again – and this time, he wouldn’t let Dragowski get anywhere near it.
But he didn’t – the problem was, the only people who could get close to it were the ones sitting in the back row of the Johan Cruyff Arena. Brobbie fired Chris Waddle’s high penalty into the stands…
….and then starts crumbling onto the turf….
…face down, unable to believe what he had just done…
…provides a classic “you can see his heart break in two” moment…
But wait. Vehenna comes. You’ll remember earlier that the former Feyenoord man silenced Ajax fans after (almost) scoring his first penalty, and you can understand: he got the abuse, he scored Well, he’s got his work cut out for him tonight because otherwise he’s got to take another penalty, right?
ah. Unfortunately, he faced the extraordinary Paswell again. The 40-year-old was not Ajax’s first-choice goalkeeper but he took the opportunity to impress: Wechner attempted the same penalty as his first, but This time, Paswell used more physical strength to keep the ball out.
“Yes, five is a lot,” he deadpanned after the game, adding that during the penalty shootout he was on the touchline with former Ajax midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who works for Dutch TV Laugh together. “I save penalties occasionally, but I don’t think you experience crazy things like this very often.”
The last time Paswell saved a penalty in a regular season game was in the 2021 Eredivisie, when he represented Vitesse against Heerenveen. The last penalty shootout he participated in was for Vitesse against AVV Swift in the 2017 KNVB Cup (Dutch Cup).
Ajax goalkeeper Paswell celebrates during the penalty shootout (Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Remko asked why there was never a picture of the goalkeeper keeping a clean sheet,” Farioli told AFP, referring to the many photos of Ajax greats that adorn the stadium’s walls. “I told him he should probably play a little better. But now I think we should hang up a picture of him.
Ajax once again won by one kick. They did something interesting this time: While the other players taking their second penalty kicks were shot in the same order as in the first round, Ajax mixed things up by sending winger Anton Gayi in place of Henry. Dessen took the 17th penalty kick. He fired a low shot into the bottom corner, Dragovski went the wrong way and finally, finally, finally, the game was over.
From the time Mancini took the first penalty kick to Gaea’s winning goal, 24 minutes and 2 seconds had passed. Ajax won 13-12 and advanced to the play-offs. If they beat Polish side Bialystok, they will qualify for the Europa League stage.
This wasn’t the longest penalty shootout ever. That title still belongs to SC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv, who took 56 penalties in the Israel Third Division play-off semi-finals earlier this year.
But there was enough drama here, from Paswell’s save to Brobbie’s two errors to Farioli’s utter desperation.
Ajax will face Breda this weekend in their second Eredivisie match of the season. You suspect a nice, quiet, boring 1-0 win would do them some good.
(Above: Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu, via Getty Images)
