🏏 Sat, 5 Sep 2026 20:00 CEST
Ajax
vs
PSV Eindhoven
4-3-3 vs 4-2-3-1
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- PSV arrive in Amsterdam third on 10 points from four matches (3-1-0, +10 goal difference), while Ajax sit fourth on seven points having played only three (2-1-0, +6). Neither side has lost yet, and with AZ Alkmaar leading on 12 points and Feyenoord on 11, the outcome here will shape the early shape of the title race.
- Ajax have conceded just twice in three league games. They won 2-0 at PEC Zwolle on the opening weekend and 4-0 at Telstar in round four, keeping clean sheets on both away trips. The one blemish came at home, a 2-2 draw with Heerenveen, so results in Amsterdam are the obvious weak spot for PSV to attack.
- PSV have scored 15 goals in four matches, 11 of them in the last two alone: 5-1 at home against Groningen and 6-1 away at Utrecht. After being held 2-2 by Fortuna Sittard on the opening weekend they have won three in a row, and their +10 goal difference is the joint best in the division alongside leaders AZ.
- Ajax's midfield three spans two generations. Julian Brandt, 30, brings Bundesliga mileage from Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund, while 33-year-old Davy Klaassen is in his third spell at the club after Everton, Werder Bremen and Inter. Beside them starts 18-year-old Jorthy Mokio, the left-footed signing from Gent who can cover centre-back, left-back and holding midfield and made his senior Belgium debut in March 2025.
- PSV's double pivot features 22-year-old Japan midfielder Kodai Sano, who reached Eindhoven via Fagiano Okayama and NEC Nijmegen. A tenacious ball-winner with a clean passing range, he played at a U-20 World Cup and is the younger brother of Mainz's Kaishu Sano. His partner is Noah Fernandez, a 21-year-old left-footed Belgium U18 international who has been in the PSV academy since the age of seven.
- Sergiño Dest returns to the club that made him. The 25-year-old USA full-back came through the Ajax academy before moves to Barcelona and AC Milan, and he is at his best carrying the ball forward from deep. PSV name two natural right-backs in the same defence, with Lutsharel Geertruida — a Conference League winner at Feyenoord, arriving from RB Leipzig — also in the starting four.
- Guus Til scored a hat-trick against Ajax in his first match after joining PSV, and the 28-year-old starts again in the number 10 role. He left AZ Alkmaar for Spartak Moscow in an 18 million euro transfer and later had loan spells at Freiburg and Feyenoord; his timing arriving in the box is exactly what the Ajax midfield must track.
- Ajax's front three poses three different problems. Tolu Arokodare, the 197cm Nigeria international who won the Ebony Shoe after a 20-goal season in Belgium, leads the line with his aerial presence and hold-up play. Number 10 Oscar Gloukh, a 22-year-old Israel international signed from Red Bull Salzburg for around 14.75 million euros, provides the final pass with either foot, while left-footed 34-year-old Steven Berghuis, a former Feyenoord man, starts on the right.
- Ivan Perisic, 37, takes the left flank for PSV. The Croatia veteran has 142 caps and 33 international goals, scored in the 2018 World Cup final, and has served Inter, Bayern Munich, Tottenham and Dortmund. Facing him down that side is Anton Gaaei, the 23-year-old Dane who joined Ajax for a record fee from Viborg FF, making it a 14-year age gap in a key duel.
- The goalkeepers bring contrasting stories. Ajax field Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the 34-year-old Germany international who arrived on loan in August 2026 after more than a decade at Barcelona and a spell at Girona, and whose distribution underpins their build-up. PSV counter with 196cm Czech Matej Kovar, a former Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen keeper who has been voted the Czech league's goalkeeper of the year.