Ajax had a dream evening in the Champions League on Tuesday evening. The team of coach Erik ten Hag was too strong at home with no less than 4-0 and left little of Borussia Dortmund. That Ajax had a memorable evening is once again apparent from the statistics of statistics agency opta. For example, the team from Amsterdam treated Dortmund to its biggest defeat ever and a 25-year-old record was also shot out of the books.
Since the 1995/96 season, Ajax has not been able to convert the first three matches in the Champions League into a win. The last time that succeeded, the team reached the final, in which Juventus eventually proved too strong after penalties. At the time, Jari Litmanen took the only Amsterdam goal in regular time, after Fabrizio Ravanelli had given the Italians the lead. Ajax finished that season as the leader in a group with Real Madrid, Ferencváros and Grasshopper.
6 & 3 – Sébastien Haller is the second player ever to score six goals in his first three Champions League matches, while also becoming only the fourth Ajax player ever to score in three consecutive #UCL games (Kluivert in 1995, Litmanen in 1996 & Tadic in 2018). killer. pic.twitter.com/i9iBlnlLux
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) October 19, 2021
The 4-0 win also means Dortmund’s biggest defeat ever in the Champions League. Once before, the team lost in a European context with the same figures, in 2003 against FC Sochaux. However, the battleground at the time was the UEFA Cup. Moreover, it was Dortmund’s first defeat in the Champions League against a Dutch opponent since the 1-0 against Ajax in March 1996. The six matches that followed yielded a point or a victory (three wins, three draws).
There was personal success for Remko Pasveer, Daley Blind and Sébastien Haller. Pasveer became the first goalkeeper ever to act three times on a shot by Erling Braut Haaland in the billion-dollar ball. Blind’s goal, who took the 2-0, meant his first in the Champions League on behalf of Ajax. He last scored in the top European club tournament in October 2017, on behalf of Manchester United against Benfica. Haller became the first African player to score goals in his first three Champions League matches against Dortmund since Didier Drogba in 2003.
For Marco Reus it was an evening to soon forget. The attacking midfielder extended a free kick from Dusan Tadic after eleven minutes and outsmarted his own goalkeeper. This made him the third BVB player to score an own goal in the Champions League, after Sven Bender (in 2017 against AS Monaco) and Marwin Hitz (in October 2020 against Lazio). It was the 96th goal for Ajax in the Champions League at home and only the first time that the team benefited from an own goal in its own stadium.