The current youthful crop of Ajax will never forget or forgive Tottenham and more so Lucas Moura for the maiden comeback that he gave his side Spurs to dent and nail a dead end in their hopes of getting to the finals of Champion League.
The last whistle was not as important and sickening like was the last goal that Moura netted for the visiting side and the faces of the players told it all.
Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt’s despair as the Dutch giants agonisingly squandered the chance to reach a first Champions League final for 23 years was evidently showing but it was gone, just like that courtesy of Lucas Moura who scored a hattrick.
The youthful Ajax side was on the brink of achieving something remarkable until Tottenham recorded what had seemingly been seen an impossible comeback.
Thoughts at the Johan Cruyff Arena quickly turned to whether this marked the beginning of the end for a team whose scintillating football had seen off teams such as Real Madrid and Juventus in this season’s competition.
Midfielder Frankie de Jong, who said Ajax’s run was like a “fairytale with an unhappy ending”, will join Barcelona in the summer, and 19-year-old De Ligt could go too.
The Dutch side club has had it all going well in their fight to get to the tail end of the Champions League seeing the big fish out of the game.
They started with the defending champions Real Madrid and repeated the same to Cristiano Ronaldo’s side, Juventus only to be eliminated at the semi-finals by Spur who are not arguably one of the best clubs in Europe though they’re showing their muscles currently though at a slow pace.
It has been a norm whenever a club is doing fairly well in any league that all eyes get cast there which is the case that is befalling Ajax.
Chances are high that their players are going to be hunted by the rich European clubs which has already been seen with De Jong having left for Barcelona already.
The success of a medium placed club causes uproar and because the of their need for cash and the goo offers they tend to sell out the good players.
In 1995, an Ajax side boasting future global stars such as Edwin van der Sar, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, De Boer brothers Frank and Ronald, Marc Overmars and goalscoring substitute Patrick Kluivert won the European Cup for the first time in 22 years.
Twelve months later they were beaten in the final on penalties by Juventus before exiting to the Italians in the semi-final a year later. The youngsters soon dispersed, leaving Amsterdam for Europe’s wealthiest clubs.
Monaco’s talented young side of 2016-17 reached the Champions League semi-finals, after which players such as Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Tiemoue Bakayoko moved with varying success to bigger clubs.
Monaco have failed to progress from the group stage since.
Jose Mourinho’s Porto won the competition in 2003-04 only to witness many of their key players follow the manager out, and have not gone beyond the quarter-finals in 15 years since that success.
Then there was the case of 5,000-1 shock Premier League winners Leicester City reaching the last eight of Europe’s elite competition in 2016-17.