The game started in relentless fashion for both teams but the impitus was wit Feyenoord early as in the first minute of play Jean-Paul Boetius ran down the left and found Jordy Clasie with a good passs, Clasie was then allowed far too much space inside the Ajax box and he could only manage to hit the crossbar.
3' Only a couple of minutes later, Luke Wilkshire put in a fantastic cross and Ruben Schaken managed to get his head on it but again the crossbar was struck.
4' Less than a minute later, Anwar El Ghazi earnt a costless kick from about 35 yards out for Ajax and Ricardo van Rhijn stepped up to take it and he managed to score it! The crowd at de Kuip were silenced by the goal as it was a thing of beauty, Feyenoord 0-1 Ajax.
11' Feyenoord were having most of attacking play and another chance was created through a cross from Miquel Nelom who crossed to the far post to Sven van Beek but he hit the bar with his header like Ruben Schkan did a few minutes earlier, it was the 3rd time this match that Feyenoord had hit the bar.
26' Chances haven't come Ajax's way so far and their second shot of the match through Anwar El Ghazi forced a good save from Kenneth Vermeer with a shot from the edge of the box.
44' Clear cut chances have been few and far between since the first 10 minutes or so but that changed when Jordy Clasie played a long ball forward to Colin Kazim-Richards who takes an excellent first touch in the box to take it past Niklas Moisander and from about 8 yards out, Kazim-Richards had plenty of time to compose his shot but he shot quickly and wide to the left hand post.
Half time: Feyenoord 0-1 Ajax, Ricardo van Rhijn's costless-kick seperates both sides at half time but all the attacking play has been with Feyenoord with leading the way with 65% possession and 8 shots to Ajax's 3. The damning statistic for Feyenoord in the first half was that they didn't register a single shot on target which is quite surprising considering the amount of shots they've had.
49' Sigthorssen is put through to the left by Andersen but Kenneth pulls off a good save to deny him a goal.
61' Lucas Andersen coming off for Lerin Duarte
71' three subs, two for Feyenoord which were Elvis Manu and Tonny Vilhena on for Ruben Schaken and Karim El Ahmedi respectively and Ajax replaced Niki Zimling with Nick Viergever.
73' Nick Viergever who hasn't been on long has already got himself in the book for a cynical foul on Manu as Feyenoord were on the counter attack.
74' Cilessen pulls off a great save from the resulting costless kick as Jens Toornstra crossed it in and Boetius met the cross with powerful header but was denied by Cillesen.
78' The match has been rather heated and Terence Kongolo is forced to go off due to injury for Feyenoord and is replaced by Mitchell te Verde.
84' Ricardo Kishna replaces Anwar El Ghazi for Ajax.
90' Feyenoord just haven't been clinical enough but have 4 minutes added time to save a point.
92' Elvis Manu ran down the right hand side and managed to beat Nicolai Boilesen and then has Nick Viergever to beat inside the box which he did and had Colin Kazim-Richards and Mitchell te Verde to pick out in the middle of the box and with a ground pass back across goal he picks out Te Verde who has plenty of time to shoot and does into the bottom right hand corner with Jasper Cilessen beaten but the man who made the socreline 1-0 Ricardo van Rhijn was there to clear it off the line and then safely into Cillessen's hands. So close for Feyenoord who have deserved at least a point this match due to their relentless attacking play but they just haven't been clinical and scored the goal they've so desperatly craved.
93' less than a minute later, Mitchell te Verde towers above the Ajax defence to try get that equaliser but Jasper Cillessen denies him with a reflex save down the middle.
Full time: Feyenoord 0-1 Ajax, one of the best costless kicks you'll see this season by Ricardo van Rhijn seperates these two fierce rivals, Feyenoord created plenty of chances but just could not get that important goal. The early goal meant that the pressure was on Feyenoord to get back into the game as they were at home, overall the 18 shots and 63% possession on the statistics shows that they deserved something but if you cannot score a goal it's hard to say you deserve anything but Ajax were resolute in defence and Jasper Cillessen couldn't have done any better and Van Rhijn was excellent.
It's been a terrible start to the season for Feyenoord manager Fred Rutten after being knocked out the Champions League by Besiktas and only managing one win out of their first 6 Eredivisie games, the main problem is that they need to replace the goals scored by Graziano Pelle last season and they've only scored 4 in all competitions this season with 3 coming from Mitchell te Verde and the other coming from Colin Kazim-Richards, goals need to start going in or else it could be an extremely poor season for Feyenoord.
Ajax will be relived to have grabbed all three points today as they just about managed to grind it out but Frank de Boer will be worried about his sides attacking play as they rarely looked threatening, the defence despite making a few mistakes to allow Feyenoord in were overall very good and just about held onto a clean sheet and that was helped by the excellent Jasper Cillessen.