- Tottenham hammer Dortmund 4-0
Dutch club, Ajax Amsterdam produced a scintillating display to reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals with a 4-1 humiliation of holders Real Madrid inside the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
Like a bolt out of the blues, Ajax punished the Spanish giants for their lackluster play in the return leg fixture and the defeat was the first time they crashed out at the Round of 16 stage of the competition since 2014-15.
On a night that they put every foot wrong going forward, the Los Blancos, with captain Sergio Ramos suspended after deliberately collecting a yellow card in the first leg, lost 3-5 aggregate.
They had won the first leg by 2-1 three weeks ago but woefully fell apart in the first half with their lead being overturned in the opening 20 minutes by goals from Hakim Ziyech and David Neres as Ajax ran riot.
The irrepressible Dusan Tadic added another with a controversial second-half strike, leaving Madrid requiring three goals to stay in the competition, and although Marco Asensio got one back, a fourth home defeat in a row never looked in doubt as Lasse Schone made it four.
With two of those reverses coming at the hands of bitter rivals Barcelona last week before this humbling, pressure will undoubtedly build on head coach Santiago Solari’s position.
The unmarked Raphael Varane headed against the crossbar inside five minutes, but Ajax settled into the contest thereafter and two superb pieces of creative play from Tadic swiftly wiped out Madrid’s away goals.
Tadic first darted in behind Nacho Fernandez to square for Ziyech to sidefoot into the bottom left corner and then the Serbia international left Casemiro in a spin and played in Neres for a calm finish.
Ajax passed up further chances before a horrible half for the hosts was compounded by injuries to Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius Junior in quick succession.
Substitute Gareth Bale, jeered off the pitch against Barca, was again whistled by his own supporters and almost gifted Ziyech a third goal before striking the post at the other end.
Madrid scarcely improved after the restart and Tadic was rightly the man to put the tie beyond them, slamming into the top-left corner before a lengthy delay as VAR finally advised the referee that the ball had not gone out of play earlier in the move.
A belated response saw Asensio slide a finish beyond Andre Onana, but there was no let up in Ajax’s attacking ambition and a glorious Schone free-kick caught out the scrambling Thibaut Courtois, before a frustrated Nacho was sent off in stoppage time.
Within a space of seven days, Madrid played three home games, lost three home games and exited two competitions, even as they further slipped 12 points behind La Liga front-runners, Barcelona on the table.
That bitter rivals Barcelona handed them two of the defeats, and this third one to Ajax effectively ended their incredible European run of three consecutive Champions League Trophies make matters more painful and put at risk Coach Solari’s hopes of remaining on his job beyond the end of this season.
In Germany, Harry Kane’s goal lifted Tottenham Hotspurs to a 1-0 victory over Bundesliga Leaders, Borrusia Dortmund in the second leg at Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday night.
The win saw the Premier League side winning the last-16 encounter 4-0 on aggregate having taken a 3-0 lead at Wembley Stadium about three weeks ago.
In the English club’s history, this is second time they are reaching the quarter-finals of the elite European club competition. Their only other quarter-final appearance was during the 2010/11 season.
Kane, who missed the first leg through injury, fired home the winner in the 49th minute, shortly after the restart to silence the vociferous home crowd.
Dortmund, who have seen their seven-point lead in the Germans league evaporate in recent weeks and already out of the German Cup, never looked like overturning the 3-0 first leg deficit. – With agency reports
