Was it really that weird? League performance aside you’re talking about a team that spent 85 million over the summer and winter transfer windows and beat Bayern on penalties. Would it still be weird if little Ajax went on to win it? Of course not this is just sour grapes from the usual Spurs haters. Neither Barca or Ajax will get a shot this year because they both choked. Great young team and they pushed us to the limit but at the end of the day we prevailed through (Moura’s) sheer force of will. To quote Robert Deniro in Copland with regard to Ajax and Barca... “YOU BLEW IT! YOU BLEW IT!”
Unbelievable result today. I was at a Spurs bar in San Francisco today, have live reactions with some hardcore fans. Will have to upload here later.
Congrats Spurs! Will be at the final in Madrid in a couple of weeks. Thought it was Barcelona vs Ajax I'd be seeing, but so be it - Liverpool vs Spurs it is! What a run it has been... incredible to think Spurs only had one point after three games at the beginning of the campaign but Spurs just continue to refuse to lose.... Just out of curiosity, what's the injury situation looking like at the moment.. will Kane be fit for the final?
Poetic stuff from Barney Ronay at the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/08/spurs-ajax-champions-league-mauricio-pochettino
Dele had himself a match too, eh? at least from the highlights I saw, he was putting in some nice through balls, and got in on 2 of the assists. Eriksen didn't seem to have near as much influence as I woulda hoped (again, just from the highlights I saw) and if anyone needs this upcoming break, he does
Congrats on the victory. I hope Vertonghen is healthy for the final match as he was one of my favorites when he played for Ajax. Ajax just didn't have the tactics to cope with Llorente last night and the multiple runners were big.
apparently he suffered a foot injury very late or possibly even after the match https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...njury-champions-league-final-liverpool-Madrid
Did anyone else notice on the scoring bug on the UEFA feed that the +5 changed to a +6 a bit after the goal? I wonder if the +5 wasn't an error of reading the electronic sign?
As the players walked off at the end Pochettino did something nice, rushing towards the Spurs fans and pointing at the Ajax team, still stumbling about in the centre circle, urging them to applaud and cheer their hosts, to give them at least a taste of that sweetness. There is certainly a sense of class about Spurs.
The goal went in at about 5:01 and I remember the referee had booked their keeper for time wasting, so he was probably going to add at least 30 seconds to the end of the game. After all the mad celebrating, the game restarted at around 6:56 and the referee, to his credit, did allow about 30-40 seconds more after the restart.
It was strange, because in the first leg, Llorente had no impact on the game. I don't think it was tactics, Ajax were just unlucky. Ziyech, who would have won man of the match had Ajax gone through, had 3 good chances at 2-2 to score the killer 3rd goal (one shot wide, one shot off the post and a great save by Lloris).
Inter actually didn't get scored on in stoppage time, but they were held to a home draw against a PSV team that had nothing to play for. In our 5th game of the group, we needed a Cristian Eriksen goal ten minutes from time to beat Inter 1-0, when a draw would have had us eliminated.
I kind of disagree. Spurs figured out that Blind was the weak spot on the back line and Llorente more often than not went to that side of the field. Dele had many effective runs yesterday when he did little or nothing in the first match. Son was dangerous all game long and Lucas Mora had a match he will remember for the rest of his life. Ajax got over matched because they didn't move the back four up every time Spurs passed the ball back to reset the offense. This meant that they were close to the goal when the pass came in. the Ajax MF did a poor job of reading this in the final 20 minutes. Spurs ended up with three real goal scoring threats that could play off of Llorente. Poncherttino got everything right with this approach. Anyway, my heartbreak has mostly healed and it will be interesting to see how many of the Ajax players will leave this summer. Tagliafico and Onana have already said they are staying around. de Jong is already signed with Barcelona. de Ligt just bought an apartment in Amsterdam with his girlfriend (daughter of a former Ajax player) but big money will be offered for him. Neres is likely to go. I hope van de Beek stays as he's also a local Amsterdam boy. There are some really exciting players coming through the academy now and the Dutch U-17 side which thrashed England 5-2 the other day starts five Ajax youth players.
Just a slight modification, please - Dele. He has asked not to be referred to by his last name as he wants no association with that part of his life (he was adopted).
xG over both legs had Spurs at 3.6 and Ajax at 2.7 Two-legged xG map for Tottenham - AjaxAjax had 20-30 excellent minutes in the first leg and it was nearly enough, but Spurs outplayed them overall and, uh, got the result and are going to the Champions League final. pic.twitter.com/v4W529cc7z— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) May 8, 2019
Fixed!!! Memphis Depay of Lyon and the Dutch NT also only goes by his first name even though match announcers don't follow this.