Valentijn Driessen thinks it is ‘perhaps possible’ for Ajax to reach the final of the Champions League. That’s what the football chief of says The Telegraph in a video on the newspaper’s website. Driessen thinks that Ajax will win ‘on a good day’ against the best European top clubs, he said after the 1-3 victory of the team from Amsterdam against Borussia Dortmund. He also hands out compliments to Ten Hag for a ‘golden change’.
Ajax won in Dortmund with goals from Dusan Tadic, Sébastien Haller and Davy Klaassen. “And all according to the Dutch School with attacking, attractive dominant football with an important role for the wingers Dusan Tadic and Antony and the offensive midfielder Steven Berghuis. How special?” Driessen writes in his column. “Ajax has kept pace with the equally clear superpowers Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Juventus. Opponents that Ajax and Ten Hag would like to measure themselves against in the knockout phase. Although it has to be patient for that, since group winners – 99.9% certainly for Ajax – cannot draw each other in the eighth finals.”
Marco Rose is angry because of the red card that Mats Hummels received
Although Driessen is full of praise for Ten Hag, he thinks that the Ajax coach ‘shows a little more Amsterdam self-awareness’ outside the field. He is referring to a statement by Ten Hag prior to the duel with the German top club. “It seemed rather strange that Ten Hag maneuvered himself into the position of underdog in the run-up to the return in Dortmund. According to the trainer-coach, the Germans were still the favorite in the group and dangerous, because they were out for revenge after the 4-0 earwash in Amsterdam,” said Driessen. “This was too exaggerated. The gala performance in the Johan Cruijff ArenA did not come out of the blue and the German players had not suddenly become much better in two weeks. In fact, Borussia Dortmund was made too big.”
Mats Hummels was sent off with a red card in the first half for a foul on Antony. Not much later Ajax fell behind because Marco Reus used a penalty kick. Only after the break did Ajax manage to take the initiative. According to Driessen, based on Steven Berghuis. “In halftime, Ten Hag intervened with a golden substitution: Davy Klaassen for Edson Álvarez,” said Driessen. “With that, the peace and control came back and the damage was repaired with a star role for Antony with three assists. It led to an already historic European campaign, which should be successfully continued after the winter in 2022. For that Ajax has to play like in the second half in Dortmund, because before halftime Ajax was unnecessarily vulnerable. Even against ten men.”
Because Ajax is almost certainly the group winner, Ten Hag’s team will have to deal with a number two from another group after the winter break in the eighth finals. “Basically, you draw a weak opponent for the next round. After that it’s a free draw and then you can face the big boys. Then you have to live up to what they did in 2019 and then we’ll see. But I think this Ajax is quite capable of actually being able to beat almost all teams on a certain level. If you have that day and you play against Liverpool, you can even knock out Liverpool. So maybe another semi-final or maybe a final is possible.”