If you’d like to hear what the managers made of that sensation, then you can follow their press conference on the Guardian Football channel here:
One final call for Stuart James’s match report:
Ajax’s budget is puny compared to the European giants they have slain. But they are showing, again, that forming a nifty team is far more important than splashing out on a superstar.
Stuart James was fortunate to bear witness to Ajax’s exploit in Turin, and we are ll fortunate to be able to read his report:
This isn’t supposed to be possible in an age of unprecedented media coverage of European football, is it? We tend to think we know all about every team. But practically no one predicted a few months ago that Ajax would reach the last four of the Champions League, let alone by dancing all over Real Madrid and Juventus away from home. A super, stylish team has grown up before our eyes, and bit like Monaco a few years aback, and it’s a joy to be so spectacularly surprised. By the end, Juve were grateful not to have lost by more.
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Full-time: Juventus 1-2 Ajax (Agg: 2-3)
Ajax are through to their first Champions League semi-final since 1997 - before some of this team were born! And they thoroughly deserved their victory here. They outplayed Juventus: sharper, stronger, more skilful and totally swish. They were a joy to watch and neither Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur will enjoy trying to beat them. But what a treat the semi-final will be to watch.
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90+2 min: Ronaldo’s Champions League campaign ends with a yellow card as he’s booked for bringing down Veltman, who was threatening to burst past him down the right. That sums up this tie.
90+1 min: Juve had at least one more minute to score two goals. Ronaldo is good and all, but it’s not going to happen ...
90 min: No penalty. The ball undoubtedly hit Blind’s hand but the VAR official apparently couldn’t say for sure that it was deliberate.
89 min: Kean embarks on a strong ru down the right. He’s kept at bay but when the ball is sent back in via Cancelo, it hits the hand off a defender. The ref waves play on... and then stops for advice from VAR. Are Juve to be given a penalty?
Ajax substitution: Huntealaar on, Ziyech off.
87 min: It is worth noting that Ajax came into this game with six players on yellow cards and haven’t had any bookings so far today. Discipline to go with their skill.
85 min: Ajax fans are taunting their hosts with a rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. The future looks positively brilliant for this Ajax team. Well, until they are bought apart by richer clubs. But perhaps they will lift the Champions League before leaving?
83 min: Van de Beek gets back to interrupt a Juve attack by muscling his way between Pjanic and the ball in the box. They’re canny as well as nifty, these Ajax lads.
82 min: Ajax’s young wizards are absolutely schooling the Old Lady. Juve can barely get the ball. A third goal for the visitors look far more likely than a comeback by Ronaldo & Co.
Ajax substitution: Magallan on, Sinkgraven off. That first-half sub is withdrawn and replaced but another player who has never previously played in this competition.
GOAL! OR NOT!
Ziyech curls a beautiful shot into the net after another swish Ajax move but the ref whistles and demands urgent clarification from VAR. The celebrations are cut short and the waiting begins ... and eventually, Ziyech’s shot is ruled out. Because he was offside earlier in the buildup.
79 min: Cancelo delivers an inviting cross from the right. The ubiquitous De Ligt prevents Ronaldo from getting his head to it.
78 min: A Juventus corner is cleared and suddenly Ajax are flying forward again! Ziyech zooms into the box and slips the ball to Neres, who tries to play it back to him with a foxy backheel. It doesn’t come off.
77 min: Matuidi lofts a cross over from the left. Ronaldo takes it down on his chest and unleashes a shot from 18 yards that flicks off a defender for a corner.
74 min: Another flowing Ajax move seems to come a cropper when Tadic’s over-head pass falls to Rugani. But the defender takes a gauche touch, and allowing Ziyech to nip in and flip the ball through to Neres, who finds himself one-on-one with the keeper. But he loops his shot wide. What a let-off for Juve, who are fortunate not to be on the end of a Real-style beating already.
72 min: Alex Sandro’s hopeful cross from the right is cleared. Then Can’s dinked ball towards Kean is whacked to safety by De Ligt. “Calling this Ajax side overconfident seems a tad(ic) harsh,” quibbles Grant Tennille. “The understanding between these players, along with their individual skill and chutzpah is just an absolute delight to watch.” Quite right, Grant. I was referring only to one sloppy pass.
70 min: Schöne fires wide from a freekick. Juve are at a loss as to what to do about their inferiority here. Ajax are growing ore dominant...
That really was an outstanding header by the 19-year-old (!) De Ligt! He soared between two Juventus players and planted the ball into the net from 10 yards. He’s put Ajax on the verge of their first semi-final since before he was born. Juve need to score at least twice.
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GOAL! Juve 1-2 Ajax (De Ligt 67) (Agg: 2-3)
Van de Beek sends over an outswinging corner .. and De Ligt sends a downward header into the net from 10 yards!
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65 min: Another lovely move by Ajax. Tadic clips the ball across to Ziyech, who tries to lay it back to a man in the middle when he could have shot from seven yards. Bonucci concerns to the rescue for Juve, who are on the rack!
Juve substitution: Cancelo on, De Sciglio off.
63 min: A fine, sweeping Ajax move concludes with Tadic trying to roll a pass from the right-hand side of the box to Ziyech. But Pjanic, tracking back superbly, slides it to divert it behind for a corner. And from that corner De Ligt heads wide.
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61 min: Ronaldo taekes down a long pass from the back on his thigh and dashes past Blind. Then he feeds Kean, who, with De Ligt bearing down on him, opens fire from the edge of the area. HIs shot whizzes wide but he wants the crowd to take encouragement from it and gestures at them to turn up the noise. The home fans have been noticeably anxious in the last 15 minutes or so.
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59 min: Schöne takes a corner shot to De Jong. Ajax circulate the ball confidently ... until Ronaldo steps in and takes it off them. That looked suspiciously like over-confidence from the upstart young visitors, who had certainly been the better team since the break.
57 min: Ajax are coming on real strong. They are the sharper and soother side ... and Szczesny has just had to make another super save to tip a long-range curler from Van de Beek over the bar. “You raise an intriguing point,” chirps Justin Horton. “How will they do the coin toss after the abolition of proper money? Odds or evens? Guess which hand is holding the stone?”
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55 min: Matuidi tries to scamper past Veltman down the left but the defender manages to stick the ball behind for a corner. The setpiece is delivered to the back post, where Ronaldo gets his head to it but nods wide under pressure from De Ligt.
54 min: A sloppy pass in midfield by Juve sets up an Ajax attack. Neres skedaddles towards goals and slips the ball to his left to Ziyech. The Moroccan blasts a powerful shot towards goals ... but Szczesny turns it away with an excellent one-handed save. The goalkeeper needed a very strong wrist to stop that.
52 min: Lovely interplay between three Ajax players at the fringe of the Juve box before Van de beek’s low shot is deflected out for a corner. Schone’s delivery finds Blind but, falling backwards, he can’t guide the header on to the goal.
50 min: It’s the quarter-final of the Champions League ... and a Juventus player (De Sciglio) has just missed the pitch with a throw-in. Elite. “I bet you two and six there will be coins in five years time,” retorts Justin Kavanagh. “And if you’re not interested, have you got Paul Scholes’ fax number?”
48 min: Matuidi fires in a low cross from the left. De Jong gets back to make an important clearance.
47 min: It’s a steady start to the second half. No one’s going to start taking wild risks at this stage, least of all Juve, who known that conceding another away goals could be ruinous.
Juventus substitution: 18-year-old Moise Kean on, Dybala off. “I’m thinking Ajax winning and picking up six yellow cards has to be the best outcome for Man City (or maybe Spurs),” reckons Phil Grey.
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“I‘m all for VAR when it’s needed but, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, in five years time they’ll be VARing the coin toss,” croaks Justin Kavanagh, who apparently thinks there’ll be coins in five years time.
Half-time: Juventus 1-1 Ajax (agg: 2-2)
You can almost touch the tension as the players stride off. As they sip their half-time cuppas, each player will know that this match looks like it’s going to be decided by one flash of brilliance, or one agonising mistake ...
45+5 min: Freekick to Juve after De Jong catches Ronaldo. It’s 30 yards out and central. Ronaldo fancies it, naturally. There’s a six-man Ajax wall, with one Juve player in the middle and two at the end. Ronaldo smashes into the lot of them.
45+3 min: Matuidi curls over a cross from the left. De Ligt head it away. Juve regain the ball and work it back out to Matuidi, who tries again, this time from near the byline. It’s headed away at the near post.
45 min: Can gives the ball away in midfield. In other news, there will be at least five more minutes. Call it the VAR effect (plus a stoppage for an injury to Mazraoui).
43 min: Juve look rattled. Ajax are the more considered in possession. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Juve look like they’re just hoping for a burst of magic from Ronaldo, but their not as coherent as Ajax, who, having said that, are not creating many opportunities. It’s tight and tense. “Are they going to VAR Every. Single, Goal?” bellows Andy Tuohy. “This is rubbish!” Agreed. I can understand it for the first goal but I don’t even know what they were looking for with the second.
40 min: Can bursts forward from midfield and powers towards the box. He goes down right on the edge under a challenge by Blind. The ref waves play on! It looked to me that he was caught ... but the replay shows I’m mistaken and the ref was right not to award a freekick.
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38 min: Szczesny takes his time making a clearance and then his heart misses a beat when Tadic charges it down! Fortunately for him, the striker used an arm so it’s a freekick to Juve.
37 min: De Sciglio careers down the right and then sends a wild cross out of play on the far side. Ronaldo sports a look that suggests he’s miffed with the help.
35 min: The goal stands! The score is level on aggregate so this tie is ON!
GOAL! Juve 1-1 Ajax (Van de Beek 33) (agg: 2-2)
A shot from outside the area rebounds into the path of Van De Beek, who takes a touch and then sidefoots it low into the corner of the net from 16 yards. Ajax have levelled up the tie! Or have they? VAR is asked to do its thing again ...
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31 min: Ajax always knew they would need to score at least once here. But right now Juve are threatening to make their task even more difficult. They work the ball wide to Ronaldo near the right-hand corner of the box. He tries to lash it into the net from there, but raps his shot wide of the target.
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The French referee has gone to the pitchside screen to examine the replay of the goal. Apparently they’re looking to see whether there was a foul on an Ajax player as the corner came in. Veltman did indeed fall but the replay shows that he was pushed by his own captain De Ligt. The goal stands!
GOAL! Juventus 1-0 Ajax (Ronaldo 28) (agg: 2-1)
A superb header from a corner. But wait, the referee has asked VAR to have a second look ...
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27 min: De Sciglio runs on to a crossfield pass and helps it on first-time to Dybala, who shot from the corner of the box is put behind for a corner.
25 min: Ajax are increasingly calm in possession. But jsut as I write that, Veltman plays a hasty cross out of play from the right, ruining a smart buildup by Ajax.
23 min: Schöne tries to wriggle his way down the right but his cross is put out for a corner by Dybala. The corner yields nothing.
21 min: A Juve corner is cleared just as Bonucci tried to meet it. Dybala picks it up 30 yards out and tries to slam it into the net. Onana springs across the goal to his right and makes a good save. He actually held the ball - none of this batting it back into play copping-out.
19 min: Neres dahes into the box from the right and slips a pass to Tadic, who nimbly gives it back to him to complete a cute one-two. Neves shot from 10 yards is then blocked behind.
17 min: Blind does well to win the ball off Can at the edge of his own area and then scramble it clear under pressure.
15 min: It’s tensely poised. Neither side is being given any time in possession, so neither is finding space to make a breakthrough. It’s high-grade scrappiness.
13 min: Schöne escapes a yellow card for scything down Alex Sandro. It wasn’t quite a Knockaert, but it wasn’t well timed.
12 min: Freekick to Ajax after Can brings down Schone. It’s about 20 yards out, to the right of the D. Ziyech floats it towards the back post ... but beyond all his teammates.
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Ajax substitution: Sinkgraven on, Mazraoui off
9 min: Scratch that entry about no ill-effects. Mazraoui seems to have aggravated his ankle injury as he cleared the ball a moment ago and he’s signalling that he can’t continue.
8 min: Mazraoui is back on and appears to be suffering no ill-effects as he beats Bernadeschi to the ball on the left and tries to run clear.
7 min: Mazraoui has limped off the pitch to receive treatment after suffering a painful-looking twist.
5 min: Apparently Emre Can still keeps an eye on English football ... because he’s just tried to catch out Onana in much the same way that Aubameyang did to Ben Foster at Watford yesterday. This time the keeper is more lucky and the rebound goes wide, not into the net.
4 min: With a little feint, Ronaldo wrongfoots almost the entire Ajax side and switches the angle of attack with a pass wide to De Sciglio. The right-back fires in a dangerous low cross from the right, but it’s cleared.
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2 min: The early tempo is high, with playing hurtling along and both sides keen to pester the man in possession. Good.
1 min: Juve get the game going, knocking the ball backwards from kickoff and then pinging it diagonally towards the left-hand corner. That’s the start favoured by a huge number of teams.
Some housekeeping details: Matuidi and Bernardeschi got yellow cards in the first leg, while six Ajax players are a booking away from missing hte semi-final first leg if they get there (De Light, Van de Beek, Blind, Schone, De Jong and Ziyech). Juventus are wearing their famous Notts County tribute jerseys with white shorts, while Ajax are in a change stripe of all black. The officials are in yellow.
The teams are in the tunnel ...
The message from the manager is clear: “You have to be brave,” says Erik ten Hag. “We will go for it, we will give everything. We have to set new limits. In a hostile atmosphere we have to do it. We have to play with belief and we can win. I’m looking forward to it.”
If Ajax were to prevail today, they would reach their first Champions League semi-final since 1997, when they were beaten in the last four by none other than Juventus, who had also beaten them in the previous year’s final. The year before that, Ajax had been European champions thanks to a victory over AC Milan. This is surely their best team since those heady days.
Martin Keown, speaking on BT, fancies a victory for Ajax: “Ajax have no nerves, they are a group of very talented young men who could do something special. This could be the end of the line for Juventus...”
Teams
Juventus: Szczesny; De Sciglio, Rugani, Bonucci, Alex Sandro; Emre Can, Pjanic, Matuidi; Bernardeschi, Dybala, Ronaldo
Subs: Pinsolgio, Khedira, Barzagli, Kean, Cancelo, Bentancur, Spinazzola
Ajax: Onana; Veltman, de Ligt, Blind, Mazraoui; Schone, de Jong; Ziyech, van de Beek, Neres; Tadic
Subs: Bruno Varela, Sinkgraven, Huntelaar, Dolberg, Magallan, D De Wit, Ekkelenkamp
Referee: C Turpin (France)
Preamble
Welcome to a tie that remains very much alive. Sure, Juventus are well placed to progress, coming into the game with a 1-1 draw from the away leg. But Ajax are capable of scoring in Turin, since they score nearly everywhere: they’ve hit 106 goals in 30 domestic league matches this season and, of course, they waltzed to a 4-1 win at Real Madrid in the last round. They haven’t lost an away match in European competition this season, whereas Juventus have already been beaten on their own patch by a spluttering Manchester United outfit. So this is a very difficult mission for the Dutch side, but not an impossible one.
Having said that, in order to advance, a side full of exciting young players will have to stifle a team who are the epitome of wiliness and are inspired by one of the all-time greats: the Dutch league leaders may have ousted the three-in-a-row European champions, but they still have to find a way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from winning a fourth successive Champions League. Beating Him and the rest of the Old Lady would be a heck of a way for the likes of Frankie De Jong, David Neres and Matthijs De Ligt to confirm themselves as some of the hottest prospects in European football before hightailing it off to more monied clubs. And we can also look out to for more fun from slightly older tricksters such as Hakim Ziyech, Dusan Tadic and, go on then, Daley Blind. All in all, we’ve got ourselves a game here. Let’s be having you!
Kick-off: 8pm BST
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