On the afternoon of February 17, at Cruyff Stadium in Amsterdam.
In round twenty-two of the Eredivisie, Ajax hosted Breda.
For Ajax, this was another golden opportunity.
The night before, Eindhoven had fought back from two goals down away to Heerenveen, but their 2–2 draw meant they failed to take all three points.
Feyenoord fared even worse. Away to Groningen, they failed to create a threat all match and lost 1–0, though they had also been thinking about conserving their strength for the upcoming Dutch Cup semifinal.
With their two main rivals drawing or losing, Ajax had even more breathing room.
Yang Yang once again rotated his squad heavily. The away match against Manchester United three days earlier had taken a lot out of them, and he also wanted to save their strength for the following week's Dutch Cup semifinal. As a result, Ajax made an uneasy start at home.
Over the opening thirty minutes, Ajax enjoyed seventy-five percent possession and took plenty of shots, while restricting their opponents to just two harmless attempts. Yet they simply could not score.
It was not until the thirty-eighth minute that Malen won a penalty and converted it himself to open the scoring. Ajax went into halftime with a 1–0 lead.
Dominance without goals—that was Ajax's frustrating predicament in the first half.
Yang Yang acted decisively at halftime, replacing the injured veteran midfielder Schöne, who could not continue, with Boadu. Van de Beek and Ødegaard formed a two-man midfield as the team switched to a 4-4-2 formation.
Even Malen and Stengs on the flanks pushed high up the pitch. This was clearly an all-out attacking setup.
Right at the start of the second half, Van de Beek surged forward from midfield and caught Breda off guard with a shot that pierced their defense.