| Match report
Sometimes, just sometimes,
football can be stranger than fiction and this match defied all
suspended belief, as Spurs stuck by theirs and went on to record a
historic victory at the very death to propel them into the Champions
League final, where they will face a familiar foes in Liverpool.
Lucas Moura stepped up and scored a hat-trick in 35 minutes to turn
around a 0-3 deficit against a youthful and talented Ajax side.
But following Pochettino's tactical change, they could not handle
the pressure that Tottenham exerted and finally crumbled under a
96th minute winner that sealed an unbelievable turnaround.
Spurs were much the same XI
who played the home leg, with Wanyama coming in for Dier from
Saturday’s game at Bournemouth and Ajax replaced Veltman with
Mazraoui, with Kasper Dolberg replacing David Neres, who pulled up
in the warm-up. The tiny Spurs section was tucked away in a corner,
with the majority of the stadium a red and white mass, but that
didn’t stop them making themselves heard above the home crowd.
When the game kicked off, Ajax were pressing hard to make it
difficult for Tottenham to play the ball out from the back and were
passing the ball confidently, with Spurs needing to throw a couple
of blocks in the box after a poor clearance. Lloris had to be ready
to exercise his reflexes when Trippier deflected a Tadic shot that
made the keeper dive full length to push it wide. From the corner,
de Ligt rose to head in, with Vertonghen left on the floor when
tangling with van de Beek. De Ligt was Trippier’s man to
pick up and then he rose above Dele to head across Hugo, but once
more we let one in from a dead ball situation this season.
It was nearly an immediate response from Spurs as they worked the
ball on the left and Son hit the foot of the post from a narrow
angle, with Eriksen just a foot away from getting the rebound. De
Jong denied Dele as he ran through and from the second phase,
Eriksen played him in to shoot wide, but he was offside. While Spurs
were enjoying possession, they were having it taken off them too
easily to build any pressure on the home goal, while Ajax were
enjoying some flicks, with players knowing instinctively where
team-mates would be. Things weren’t helped by Felix Brych (who sent
off Crouch in Madrid and O’Hara in Udinese) awarding soft free-kicks
to Ajax.
Twenty two minutes in, Lloris played the ball out and Rose worked it
inside to Dele. His pass, in front of Son in the box, produced a
shot, but it lack power to get past Onana. Dele then set Lucas into
the area and he laid it back to Eriksen, who drilled straight at the
keeper, just a minute later. For possibly the first time in the tie,
Spurs were camped in the Ajax half, with the home players being
pulled across the pitch. Even then, Tadic broke after Wanyama lost
the ball on the halfway line and luckily for Spurs, he pulled his
shot across Lloris and the goal.
Both sides were loose in possession, with Tottenham’s final ball not
weighted properly and the Barcelona bound de Jong showed that he
will do well in Spain by throwing himself into Wanyama and winning a
free-kick.
Ajax broke and were outnumbering our defenders, so, when it was
played to Ziyech from Tadic, the Moroccan swept a shot from the left
channel across Hugo and in to make the task mountainous to achieve.
In the build-up, Trippier went down holding his face, but it was a
battling spirit needed rather than giving up the ghost. It was all
going very wrong. For the last five minutes of the half, Ajax
dropped deep and stopped pressing, making it tough for Spurs to
break them down, but when we did get forward, Son lost his train of
thought and on the edge of the box, he touched it to de Jong, The
much heralded return to the side was not quite happening for Sonny.
With Danny Rose seemingly a free kick for the Ajax players, with the
referee doing little to chastise their players for a string of fouls
on him, half time came with Spurs having little but pride to play
for. To ask for three goals in a quarter of the tie when they
hadn’t scored one, was a big ask indeed. So, when Llorente replaced
the disappointing Wanyama, it looked as though Pochettino was going
for it. At the start of the second half, Spurs won the ball
and got to the edge of the Ajax penalty area, when he flicked it
over the defence and when Dele was lurking de Ligt shanked the ball
off for a corner, when it could have gone anywhere. Ajax were sloppy
and when Rose burst through the middle, he played a nothing ball
into the box that gave Dele no chance of doing anything with it. On
52 minutes, Christian bent a ball across the box from the left on
the floor and Dele got on the end of it, but from a tight
angle with the ball bouncing up, Onana blocked it at his near post.
Rose brought the ball out of defence, by megging de Ligt and sent
Dele on his way, but he brought the ball back inside to let Lucas
run it on into the box and slip it past Onana’s left hand with his
left foot from ten yards out. It was the goal that Spurs required to
step things up, as Ajax had come out and were playing with a little
too much over-confidence. Eriksen played the ball to Trippier inside
the box on the right when he played a low ball into the goalmouth.
Llorente was there and I am not sure how he didn’t score with two
efforts, but Onana was right on top of him, but the keeper spilled
the ball and Lucas Moura got it, with four men around him. Showing
deft footwork to fashion a shooting chance and the ball was shot
through de Jong’s legs and buried past a defender on the line. 2-2
and the shock could be felt around the stadium.
With Llorente up front, there was a lack pf pace, but he took the
ball off Mazraoui and decided to shoot, but it blazed well over.
Blind got a bit closer at the other end, but it went a couple of
feet over and then a cross in from Trippier caused panic, with the
ball dropping to Lucas, with de Ligt having to five in front of him
to deflect the ball wide and stop the Brazilian getting a hat-trick.
Just before that Ziyech had hit a first time shot from Tadic’s pass
inches wide of Lloris’ left hand post. defensive substitutes came on
for Ajax as they tried to stem the tides of Tottenham’s attacks and
Llorente was doing very well as a target man up top. Trippier was
having a much better second half, when he got a foot in when Ziyech
lifted a pass to the far post and he had two red and white shirts to
deal with. From the corner, the ball ended up at the far post with
de Ligt, who drilled a low ball into the six yard box and Lloris
beat it out. Just beyond Tagliafico and Spurs cleared.
Ajax were looking better on the ball now and they were finding their
men in the Tottenham half, but Spurs kept trying to build
moves with them playing off Llorente. Corners were not our strong
point, but Trippier picked out Alderweireld and the ball drifted
agonisingly wide. Moura broke on the right and pulled the ball back,
but only to an Ajax player.
Bookings went each way and then Blind took a dive with an arm out
from Llorente that he ran into to break up a Tottenham attack. With
12 minutes left, Ziyech swung in another shot that bounced off the
foot of Lloris’ left post as the chance came with Ajax players
having space on the edge of the box. When Ziyech hacked Rose down
again, the referee only showed interest in a Spurs substitution with
Lamela replacing Trippier. Davies then came on for Danny Rose, who
had been outstanding.
From an Eriksen corner in the 85th minute, Vertonghen got highest to
Llorente’s flick on and smacked a header against the bar, and then
from the rebound had his shot blocked on the line, then as the ball
came back in, Son tried a shot from the tightest of angles and it
fizzed over at the near post. Ajax were hanging on with five minutes
time to be added. Tadic broke and waited for his pass through
to find de Jong, but Toby had covered well to block his shot. Three
minutes into added time, Lloris had to beat out a Ziyech shot from
15 yards out and then Tadic shot over from the loose ball.
A last-minute corner saw
Lloris go up for it, but Llorente headed the ball over the bar and
with seconds left, it might have been the last chance. With Onana
getting booked for wasting time, his kick out looked as though it
might take the ball away from his goal for the last time, but it
came back with interest ! It was won at the back by Toby and Ben,
with the ball coming to Son in the centre circle. He played the ball
back to Sissoko, who hoisted a high ball to Fernando, who stretched
out a leg and flicked it on to Dele. He touched the ball into the
box and into the path of Lucas Moura, who did not hesitate in taking
the shot on first time before a tackle came in and it was sent along
the floor past Onana’s left hand as he dived to try and stop it. It
was almost a replay of the first goal and with seconds seemingly
remaining, the crowd went silent, the Ajax players fell to the floor
and Spurs fans went nuts !! Poch was on his knees and the subs were
in the corner in front of the Spurs fans swamping Lucas.
The referee still found some
time for Ajax to get the ball forward, chucking a long throw in, but
when we won the ball, Lamela tried to dribble the ball out and lost
it, but it was won back and it was run up the pitch and Ajax didn’t
have the legs to chase back and the foul on Sissoko brought the
final whistle. The third goal had knocked the stuffing out of the
young side, but the second half performance by Spurs, similar
to the better second half showing in the first leg, was rewarded
with three goals to go to the final on away goals. Ajax had
played well, but their second half performance was not up to the
level they had produced in the foregoing 135 minutes. They still hit
the post twice in the second half, but Jan’s header against the bar
came just as close.
I never thought that I would
see Spurs in a Champions League final in my life. The feeling
watching at home was incredible, but for those fans there, it will
be a night never to forget ! It is the realisation of a belief that
Spurs can do things their own way. Having beaten an Ajax side who
have just started spending a bit of money and hope to retain their
best players and in the final we will face a side that has spent a
lot of money. The project that Levy and Pochettino devised may be
bearing fruit sooner than they thought, but this campaign has
been a rollercoaster ride of emotion and thrills.
This win means that it will continue for one more night.
Marco van Hip |
