Champions League: 4 reasons why Ajax will knock out Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur are one of the big surprises in this year’s Champions League campaign. After an intense group, they were able to rank themselves above Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven with a late equaliser in the Camp Nou.
In the knockout stages, the English club dominated Dortmund. A result which no one expected, especially considering the great form of BVB at that time. In the quarters, Manchester City awaited, and were again knocked out by Spurs in a thrilling second leg encounter, where Pochettino outsmarted his opponent, Pep Guardiola.
Ajax Amsterdam might even be a bigger surprise. The young team’s journey started in the qualifiers, where they were able to win against Graz, Lüttich, and Kiew. In the group stage, Ajax survived their group of Bayern, Benfica, and Athens quite easily.
In March, one of the biggest uprisings in the competition’s history occurred: Ajax Amsterdam upset last year’s winners, Real Madrid, in their own stadium. However, the joy was soon muffled after the Dutch side tied with Juventus, one of the biggest favourites for the title. However, again, Ajax went through in a magnificent and impressive way.
Today we can expect a very good match. Both teams have a great offence, which is built on a strong defence and two great coaches. The sides have great individual talents, as well as young and fast players, and will not be afraid of trying to score as many goals as possible.
Tottenham and Ajax are both able to progress to the final and are definitely title contenders. However, in this article I will show why the latter are favourites to go through, using four points that will make this clear.
#1 Form in recent games
Recent games are often a sign of how the sides are doing and how good they are right now. For the English side, this is not a good omen. In the last four games, they have lost three times (once against West Ham and twice against Manchester City), even conceding their first goal and defeat in their new stadium.
In all of those occasions, Spurs were not able to even leave their best players on the bench, as Alli, Eriksen, Son etc, played most of the possible minutes.
Amsterdam on the other hand, only dropped points twice in their last 15 games, losing to Alkmaar and drawing with Juventus. They overtook their local enemy Eindhoven, after winning against them in a dominant way, placing themselves on the top of the table.
This shows that Ajax is on a great run and can dominate the best teams with their possession-based style of play, despite still being slight underdogs in the Champions League.