Ajax 2-3 Tottenham Hotspurs : 3 Tactics from Mauricio Pochettino which won Spurs the game
Tottenham Hotspurs traveled to Amsterdam for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final in the hope of overturning a 1-0 deficit in the first leg and they did just that as they beat Ajax 3-2 and went through on away goals. For Ajax, the goals were scored by Matthijs de Ligt and Hakim Ziyech. For Tottenham, Lucas Moura scored a match-winning hat-trick.
In the first half, Ajax started brilliantly and they drew first blood through their captain, de Ligt who headed it in from a corner. Spurs, on the other hand, had a few chances in the first half but they weren't able to get that decisive touch in front of goal.
Ajax soon led 2-0 after a brilliant strike from Ziyech who beat Hugo Lloris. The first half ended with Ajax on top and it looked like the match was done. But Spurs in the second half came out with a different mindset. Fernando Llorente came on for Victor Wanyama and that made a huge difference.
Moura soon struck the first goal for Spurs and he followed that up with the second goal just after five minutes. Spurs then were giving their all to find the winning goal and they got it late into extra time. It was the man of the match, Moura, who struck again to make it 3-3 on aggregate.
Spurs the held on and progressed into the finals, making it an all English one. In this slideshow, we take a look at the three tactics from Pochettino that won them the game.
#3 Dropping Eriksen deep and playing Dele further upfield in the second half
In the first half of the match, Tottenham started with Victor Wanyama and Moussa Sissoko at the base but Ajax seemed to have it all under control as Spurs were finding it difficult to involve both Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen in the game.
But in the second half, Pochettino substituted Wanyama and brought on Llorente. He put Alli further up, while Eriksen played the role of a deep-lying playmaker. That move worked wonders as Spurs immediately got the Dane midfielder on the ball and he started creating for the away side.
As for Alli, he started to play in between the lines and got two assists in the game. Pochettino got his tactics spot on, especially in the second half.