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Ajax Keeper Hailed as Hero After 'Crazy' Shoot-Out

Ajax's Dutch goalkeeper #22 Remko Pasveer (C) saves a penalty during the penalty shootout at the end of the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round second leg football match between Ajax FC and Panathinaikos FC at the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Olaf Kraak / ANP / AFP)
Ajax's Dutch goalkeeper #22 Remko Pasveer (C) saves a penalty during the penalty shootout at the end of the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round second leg football match between Ajax FC and Panathinaikos FC at the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Olaf Kraak / ANP / AFP)
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Ajax Keeper Hailed as Hero After 'Crazy' Shoot-Out

Ajax's Dutch goalkeeper #22 Remko Pasveer (C) saves a penalty during the penalty shootout at the end of the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round second leg football match between Ajax FC and Panathinaikos FC at the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Olaf Kraak / ANP / AFP)
Ajax's Dutch goalkeeper #22 Remko Pasveer (C) saves a penalty during the penalty shootout at the end of the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round second leg football match between Ajax FC and Panathinaikos FC at the Johan Cruyff Arena, in Amsterdam, on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Olaf Kraak / ANP / AFP)

The 40-year-old goalkeeper of Ajax was being hailed as a hero Friday after the Dutch giants won a "crazy" penalty shoot-out 13-12 to advance into the Europa League play-offs.
Remko Pasveer saved five penalties and scored one himself to squeeze Ajax past Greek side Panathinaikos in one of the longest penalty shoot-outs in history, said AFP.
The total of 34 penalty kicks was the most taken in a UEFA competition, beating a game between the Netherlands and England in the under-21 European Championship, where 32 were taken.
It was a "bizarre" shoot-out, Pasveer said after the match. "So many penalties and every time someone missed, the other team missed."
"This was crazy," said Ajax coach Francesco Farioli. "But it was also a great evening. We are now definitely playing in Europe."
He joked that Pasveer could expect to be immortalized in the corridors of the Ajax stadium where pictures of some of the greats of Dutch football hang.
"Remko asked why there was never a picture of a goalkeeper who has kept a clean sheet. I told him he should maybe play a bit better," quipped the coach.
"But now I think we should quickly hang up a picture of him."
It was a welcome win for Ajax, who are trying to bounce back from one of the most disappointing seasons in their illustrious history.
At one point the 36-time Dutch champions were bottom of the Eredivisie and suffered humiliating losses to rivals Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven.
With new coach Farioli at the helm, the Amsterdam-based club is hoping for a turnaround in fortunes and won their first Eredivisie match 1-0 against Heerenveen on Sunday.
The longest shoot-out in history was the 56 kicks taken in the Israeli domestic competition between SC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv.

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Top-Ranked Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner Advance in Cincinnati Open

Iga Swiatek of Poland serves during her match against Varvara Gracheva of France during Day 4 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 14, 2024 in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images via AFP)
Iga Swiatek of Poland serves during her match against Varvara Gracheva of France during Day 4 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 14, 2024 in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images via AFP)
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Top-Ranked Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner Advance in Cincinnati Open

Iga Swiatek of Poland serves during her match against Varvara Gracheva of France during Day 4 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 14, 2024 in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images via AFP)
Iga Swiatek of Poland serves during her match against Varvara Gracheva of France during Day 4 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 14, 2024 in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images via AFP)

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek survived in her return to hard courts Wednesday night in the Cincinnati Open, outlasting Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2.

Playing for the first time since finishing third for Poland in the Paris Olympics on clay, Swiatek set up a third-round match against Marta Kostyuk — a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Lulu Sun.

“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from like the slowest surface to the fastest surface,” Swiatek said. “But that’s why I’m still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results.”

Swiatek won her third straight French Open title in May and has six WTA Tour victories this season.

On the men’s side in the US Open tuneup event, top-ranked Jannik Sinner got past American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 7-5 in his first match.

In the late match, Jiri Lehecka upset fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (2), 6-4.

Earlier in women's play, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva beat 11th seeded Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-2. Andreeva was playing her first match since taking a silver medal in doubles in Paris.

“I just went out there, tried to show my best level, and tried to win a match, and I think I did it,” Andreeva said.

Andreeva will face 2016 Cincinnati champion Karolina Pliskova.

Toronto semifinalist Diana Shnaider of Russia, Andreeva’s doubles partner in Paris, beat Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-4.

Sinner improved to 25-2 on hard courts this season and advanced to a third-round meeting with Australia’s Jordan Thompson. Sinner is trying to reach the quarterfinals in Cincinnati for the first time.

“I’m very happy to be in the next round,” the Italian star said. “For me this is a place where I used to struggle a lot in the past years, so let’s see what I can do this time.”

Thompson beat Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, in his first tournament since announcing he would no longer be coached by his father, rallied to beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Tsitsipas, the No. 9 seed, revealed that Apostolos Tsitsipas would no longer coach him after losing to Kei Nishikori in his first match last week in Montreal.