AZ Alkmaar coach Arne Slot has claimed that Ajax may well be as good as, if not better, as a team than Manchester United at the moment.
Manchester United smashed AZ 4-0 at Old Trafford on Thursday night and qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League as group winners.
AZ also made it through the next round of competition and Slot feels that the fact that his side are already in the last 32 took some of the disappointment out of the result.
While he admits that he would have preferred to win, the AZ coach is not too concerned about the manner of the defeat at Manchester United.
“It is not that difficult to process this result”, the AZ coach told Dutch broadcaster FOX Sports.
“We came here to win but didn’t succeed. However, the disappointment is not that huge as we are already through.”
AZ will turn their attention towards Sunday’s top of the table clash against Ajax, with only three points separating Slot’s side from Erik ten Hag’s table-toppers at the moment.
The AZ coach conceded that any day he would prefer to win against Ajax than Manchester United at the moment as he believes the Dutch champions might even be a better team than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
“If I had to choose in advance about which match I would like to win, I would have opted for Sunday.
“But of course Ajax are a fantastic team.
“They are Champions League quality and as I estimate, they are equivalent to or perhaps even better than Manchester United.”
