Ajax 2-3 (3-3 on agg.) Tottenham Hotspur
This could never possibly live up to the epic quarter-final second leg victories both clubs achieved?
It was surely never going to match the incredible drama of the other semi-final second leg 24 hours earlier?
But that’s exactly what it did do after a stirring comeback which was probably even better than anything that preceded it in this season’s competition – and my word that is saying something after yet another Champions League football night to remember for SBOBET fans.
What a way for Lucas Moura to mark his 50th appearance in UEFA club competition!
What a way for this energetic young Ajax side, which has provided such joy, to bow out.
Highlights of the game
This was a tie which home manager Erik ten Hag described as the most important in the stadium’s history.
Not since Louis van Gaal’s 1997 vintage lost the first leg of their Champions League semi-final 2-1 to Juventus had the four-time European champions reached this stage of the competition that, this season, began for them in July against Sturm Graz.
Spurs were also aiming to embrace the moment and reach the final of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time.
However, they had to find a cure for the travel sickness after losing nine of their previous 10 away games in all competitions and improve on a first-leg showing in which they managed only one shot on target, the club’s joint-lowest total in a Champions League fixture.
A late switch saw winger David Neres drop out of the starting XI but a vibrant Ajax side, fresh from winning the Dutch Cup, didn’t let that enforced change unsettle them as they made a flying start.
After Dusan Tadic’s shot forced Hugo Lloris to make an impressive save, the hosts took a fifth-minute lead to extend their aggregate advantage.
Young captain Matthijs de Ligt lost his marker and then beat his man to thump home a header.
The returning Heung-Min Son saw his cross come shot hit the base of the post. The South Korean and Christian Eriksen then saw their efforts saved by Andre Onana.
Yet it looked a tall order for Spurs nine minutes before the break when Tadic cut the ball back to Hakim Ziyech, whose left-footed shot was superb and beyond Lloris into the far corner. It was now 3-0 on aggregate to the Dutch.
It was the latest of many Champions League 2019 highlights for Ajax. Surely, it was game over for Spurs against hosts which had lost just once in 24 matches at home this season.
But gloriously resilient Spurs were determined to prove they are a better side than the one which had shown up for most of this tie so far.
Before the hour, Moura sprinted through a gap and met Dele Alli’s pass, sliding the ball past Onana.
Then, after Onana kept out substitute Fernando Llorente, Moura spun and slammed the rebound into the net.
The small margins between failure and success were highlighted in the closing moment when the unfortunate Ziyech saw his shot come back off the post before being denied by the goalkeeper again.
Then, with 96 minutes on the clock, came magnificent Moura.
These two last nights have told us that, while the leading clubs in England can afford many top players, it takes more than just talent to win these types of games.
This was a brilliantly gutsy display, a never-say-die attitude and a “feat of escapology to make your bones vibrate,” according to one newspaper.
Incredibly, it will be Spurs who face Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid on June 1. Save the date!
Key statistics
There were only 204 seconds between Moura’s first two goals.
De Ligt is the fourth teenager to score in a Champions League semi-final, after Nordin Wooter (1996, Ajax), Obafemi Martins (2003, Inter Milan) and Kylian Mbappé (2017, Monaco).
Spurs have conceded seven goals in the opening 15 minutes of matches in the Champions League this season, the most of any side.
Ajax were the first side in European Cup history to reach the semi-finals having come through three qualifying rounds.
Ajax have only lost three of 28 European matches in which they won the away first leg.
What’s next?
This talented young Ajax have somehow now got to try and lift themselves and win their final two league matches of the Eredivisie against Utrecht and De Graafschap to win the title.
Spurs host Everton in the Premier League on Sunday and then have a nearly three-week wait before the Champions League Final on June 1.
I bet you can’t keep your eyes off those Champions League 2019 betting odds!
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