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Ajax earned the advantage over Tottenham Hotspur in the contest to reach the Champions League final this season as a Donny van de Beek goal after 15 minutes earned the giant-killers from the Netherlands a valuable 1-0 away win over their Premier League adversaries in the first leg of their semi-final showdown on Tuesday night in North London.
The Dutch Eredivisie leaders started the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium brightly, playing with great fluidity and confidence.
This rocked the Spurs team and before Mauricio Pochettino’s men could organise themselves to withstand their compact visitors, van de Beek got on the end of a precise, defence-splitting move to score a valuable away goal.
Ahead of next week’s return leg in Amsterdam, which sees Spurs needing to score two goals to win the tie on aggregate and reach a first-ever Champions League final, here are the observations made from the first leg tonight.
Spurs have put themselves in an impossible position to attack a highly-efficient attacking team
Pochettino’s side can play high-tempo football and match some of the best teams in the world as seen against Manchester City in the quarter-final stage and fractionally in the group stage against Barcelona.
But what do you do when you face a team that plays total football – high tempo, compact and organised to a crazy fault? On Tuesday night, Spurs could not come up with an answer as they fell to the Dutch side on home soil.
The result leaves Spurs needing to attack against a team that is hugely capable of splitting any defence in Europe as seen earlier against the Premier League side as well as in previous rounds against Juventus and Real Madrid.
Coupled with the fact Ajax is the highest scoring team in Europe in all competitions this season, it clearly is a terrible idea to attack such a team unless one or two things happen…
Only two ways to break down this Ajax team
Ajax got an early away goal and could have scored a second only for David Neres to be denied by the post. Spurs on their part resorted to set pieces and counterattacks to try and hurt the Dutch side to no avail – but all hope is not lost.
One way for Spurs to break down this Ajax team is applying the Gegenpressing popularised by Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp. Such high intensity game seems one way to match the tirelessness which the Ajax players have consistently displayed in the Champions League this season.
Spurs made the mistake of trying to regroup rather than attack the ball each time they lost possession, and this played easily into the system Ajax use against opponents which sees them control the tempo and either play at a steady pace running rings around opponents or attacking with great speed.
Another way for Spurs to overcome Ajax is to give up ball possession and soak up pressure in the hope to hit them on the counter. The return of Heung-min Son to the team would greatly help this cause as it would require a player who can score from half chances.
Pochettino missed his Son greatly
Speaking of Son, Pochettino missed the South Korean attacker greatly today.
It was shocking to see a Pochettino team in disarray defensively and relying greatly on set piece situations to create chances. Worst of all, they failed to convert any of those chances that came their way.
You reckon with Son on the field, things would have been slightly different and better for Spurs. His return for the second leg having served a one-match suspension makes that tie one to really anticipate.
Ajax make for great travellers in Europe
In nine away matches played in this season’s Champions League – including in the qualifying rounds, Ajax are unbeaten in their travels having won five and drawn four of those matches. Mind you, this record includes wins at Real Madrid, Juventus and now, Tottenham.
On home soil, Ajax have also won five matches from eight, drawing two and losing just the one against Real Madrid at the round of 16 stage. How Spurs could do with the 2-1 result recorded by the dethroned European champions at the time as it would be enough to send the Londoners into the final on away goals.
Ajax will make Barcelona or Liverpool sweat should they qualify
Generally, Ajax play football so well that it is now evident they would be more than a handful for either of Barcelona or Liverpool to contend with, should the Dutch side complete what they have started against Spurs in the semis.
Ajax Attacking Style of Play is demonstrated in these clips!This is beautiful to watch....fluid ball movement and flexible attacking structures. Here is two snippets from the first 10 mins of the Today's match vs Spurs!Full analysis to be released later tonight - Enjoy!
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How they play with the ball and wait for openings to show up is a joy to watch and a pain for the helpless opposition.
Can Spurs get anything from this tie to reach the Champions League final?
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