I’ve often seen people talk about how Ajax reached the UCL semis in the 18/19 season and had a great season,but no one talks about Villarreal , they also had a great run to the UCL semi finals in 21/22 , teams like lyon also reached the semi finals in 19/20 ,yet no one talks about these teams.what was so great about Ajax’s run that season ?
In my opinion, it was probably a combination of them defeating the reigning 3 time champions Real Madrid, who are also the most prestigious club of all time as well as defeating Ronaldo’s Juventus in their first season, the most popular player in the world. They also had great exciting young players such as De Ligt, De Jong & David Neres, whereas Villareal & Lyon did have great players, I feel as though people viewed them more so as amazing well functioning “units”. Finally, Ajax is a far more prestigious club historically than either of the other 2 so that probably played a part in it, people loved seeing Ajax back at the top of European football.
Van De Beek as well! He’s become a bit of a meme now but at Ajax he was fucking brilliant to watch! United fan so still hoping it happens for him but it doesn’t look likely, I hope he gets a move maybe even back to Ajax and recovers his form from that season because he was excellent.
As a Spurs fan, thought Ziyech and Tadic were great in that leg.
Tadic was one of the best players in the world that season and there’s nothing that convinces me otherwise.
Omg yes, such a shame what’s happened to him I completely forgot he existed lol. Hope he turns hid career around :/
Real Madrid pulled back their bid for Vd Beek, he really only played a handful of good games and was already in poor form when he left Ajax. He was incredibly hyped in England but many in the Netherlands questioned his talent. Vd Beek generally worked hard but the likes of De Jong, De Ligt, Onana and Ziyech were the much bigger talents.