Ajax suffered one of the great title chokes – but their fans still saluted them

As the camera operator panned their way down the line of Ajax players stood arm-in-arm, whether it was young Kian Fitz-Jim, almost blubbing with his head bowed, or 41-year-old goalkeeper Remko Pasveer’s haunted thousand-yard stare, every other face was a picture of dejection.

It was only once the camera finally reached the end of the line that there was also that other understandable emotion of the day: fury.

Clearly not ready for his close-up, Wout Weghorst, the former Manchester United striker, spied the camera moving back in out the corner of his eye and swiped at the lens with a right hand, swinging it back on its axis to leave it pointing into the sky.

Weghorst kameraya yumruk attı. pic.twitter.com/jEZrPsXeen

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It seemed the perfect postscript to one of the most astonishing late-season collapses ever seen in the Netherlands, or anywhere else for that matter.

Just five games ago, Ajax — the most decorated club in Dutch football, and a European powerhouse with four Champions League titles in their gilded history — were nine points clear at the top of the Eredivisie. Seven more were all they required for a 37th top-flight league crown. Even fewer would be needed if PSV failed to win all of their remaining games.

Anything other than an Ajax title seemed unthinkable. And yet, two defeats and two draws later, not even a final-day victory over FC Twente was enough to salvage the title. No wonder Weghorst was simmering.

Ordinarily, Ajax’s players may have expected to be met with an equally volcanic response from their fans. Instead, there was a slightly more surprising sentiment in the stands: pride.

When head coach Francesco Farioli was pushed forward by Steven Berghuis to receive the appreciation of the infamous ultra group F-side, tears began streaming down his cheeks.

The waterworks were still flowing as he embraced captain Jordan Henderson, the former Liverpool midfielder, before leaving the pitch, and started up all over again during his post-match media rounds when asked about those moments.

“It’s hard to watch because all of us wanted to dream in the end and we dreamed it, because I know what we put on the pitch. I would love to have a regret, to say: ‘F****** hell we should’ve done something more there or there’,” Farioli told ESPN, live on television. “But I really feel that we squeezed everything.”

A similar question in his press conference was initially met with 13 seconds of silence, except the sound of his own sniffling. Ajax’s press officer attempted to move the conversation on, but Farioli insisted on answering.

“The feeling and the connection I have with this group of people goes somewhere else, over the line of professional relationship. That’s why I think we did something that was unexpected.”

Ajax certainly did do something unexpected. The collapse started with a heavy 4-0 defeat in Utrecht on April 20 — only the third time Ajax had lost in the league this season, but perhaps not a total surprise against upwardly mobile opponents.

Dropping four points in successive home games against mid-table opponents was less forgivable. If being held 1-1 by Sparta Rotterdam was bad, going down 3-0 to NEC Neijmegen last weekend suddenly made the unthinkable a possibility.

Ajax’s coach Francesco Farioli was devastated by Ajax’s collapse (Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

PSV’s winner in the ninth minute of added-on time at De Kuip in the earlier kick-off that day had not helped, giving Peter Bosz’s side the third of five wins they required, increasing the pressure on Farioli and his players.

Yet it was another 99th-minute goal that would prove altogether more damaging. Ajax’s fate was still in their own hands when they were 2-1 up in the final stages in Groningen on Wednesday night. Then came Thijmen Blokzijl’s scrambled equaliser for the hosts — again, in the ninth minute of added-on time.

For weeks, Farioli had insisted to a disbelieving Dutch public that the title race was not over. “If I wanted to be wrong about anything, it was on this subject,” he said in the aftermath of the Groningen collapse. “Unfortunately, I was proven right.”

That left the Eredivisie’s runaway leaders as of a month ago reliant on results elsewhere on the final day. Only victory over Twente would do, and only then if PSV failed to win away at Sparta.

Ajax twice wrestled back their advantage at the top, initially when Henderson scored his first goal in 57 appearances for Ajax, applying the faintest of touches to Youri Regeer’s inswinging free-kick. That lasted around 10 seconds. PSV almost immediately went ahead in Rotterdam through Ivan Perisic.

Shortly before the break, pockets of noise erupted in the stands celebrating a supposed Sparta equaliser. Not so fast. Tobias Lauritsen’s header had actually hit the side netting and an erroneous update on a live scores app had tricked many around the Johan Cruyff Arena.

Jordan Henderson celebrates his opening goal for Ajax (Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Sparta would equalise through Gjivai Zechiel at the start of the second half, and the celebrations in Amsterdam had Farioli stretching out his arms, pleading for calm among his players. There was little chance of keeping a lid on things minutes later when Weghorst volleyed in to double Ajax’s lead.

Yet while VAR reviewed a potential Henderson offside in the build-up, Luuk de Jong restored PSV’s lead in Rotterdam. Ajax had been knocked off the top for the third time in a week, this time staying there for all of five minutes. Weghorst’s goal was eventually ruled out for good measure.

Weghorst eventually added a second in the 90th minute, though you would not have known it from his celebration. It was more like the reaction of a centre-forward who had missed a chance, because over the last few weeks, Ajax had wasted the greatest opportunity of all. PSV seized it with relish, celebrating on the streets of their home city of Eindhoven long into the night.

PSV’s supporters celebrate (Rob Engelaar/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Yet when Farioli spoke of doing something “unexpected” in his press conference, he obviously did not mean this most spectacular of collapses. For this 36-year-old prodigy of his fellow Italian Roberto de Zerbi, the former Brighton & Hove Albion manager now in charge of Marseille, there was pride in coming this far.

Ajax finished fifth last season, after all, even briefly flirting with the prospect of relegation. Last summer’s spending was restrained, despite a clear justification to rebuild. PSV were the pre-season title favourites of many.

Even so, Farioli’s side clawed back a nine-point deficit to PSV of their own from December onwards, winning 10 games in a row. But even then, Ajax needed every point they could get because of their hugely inferior goal difference — +33 to PSV’s +62 before Sunday’s deciders.

Bosz’s side eventually surpassed triple figures in goals scored, 36 more than their nearest title challengers. There was a wide gap in quality on the underlying metrics too. This collapse was far from inevitable, but Farioli would argue that nor was Ajax’s title challenge in the first place.

“Eleven months ago when we had our first press conference, to have the feeling we could arrive in the last game of the season and compete with a team 30 points ahead of us was something incredible,” he said.

But he was also ready to admit that, ultimately, it all comes down to perspective. Ajax’s season can be interpreted as a success from the vantage point of last summer, or a catastrophe from that of five games ago, or from the 98th minute in Groningen on Wednesday night.

Farioli’s reputation as one of Europe’s most highly-rated young coaches will survive it — he was non-committal on his future afterwards amid links to Serie A — but the memories will hurt.

In one answer post-match, Farioli revealed that upon arrival, he asked for some drab, blank walls at Ajax’s De Komest training ground to be filled with pictures from their victories this season. “The walls are almost full,” he told ESPN, still tearful. “Unfortunately, not as full as we wanted.”

(Top photo: Koen van Weel/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

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