OneFootball
Blaise Bourgeois·21 February 2020
OneFootball
Blaise Bourgeois·21 February 2020
Erik ten Hag was far from happy with Ryan Babel following Ajax’s 2-0 Europa League round-of-32 defeat at Getafe on Thursday.
With Ajax already a goal down, Babel, clearly frustrated, earned a trip into the referee’s notebook in a rather unusual and comical manner.
After it appeared he caught Getafe’s Allan Nyom with a stray arm, Nyon stayed on the ground and, rather unnecessarily, rolled around on the pitch – only for Babel to come in and mock him, joining him on the ground in hilarious fashion.
One man who was surprised and didn’t find the incident as funny was his manager, who blasted his actions after the match.
“It wasn’t smart. I don’t expect that from an experienced player,” Ten Hag said.
“You need to stay calm and use your head. You have to focus on your job, playing football.”
As for Babel himself, he admitted that anger got the best of him and was somewhat regretful following the defeat.
“I don’t know if I would do it again. I found that the referee was fooled by the opponent at crucial moments. I was done with that.
“I thought the opponent was exaggerating a lot, so I got a yellow card.
“At times, we played nicely, but it wasn’t good enough. We have a lot to analyse. Hopefully, we can make it up to the fans.”
The two will go back at it next Thursday after Ajax’s trip to Heracles over the weekend.