Johan Cruyff famously once remarked: “Italians are unable to beat us, but we can absolutely lose against them.” It summed up the clash of footballing cultures at the time. His Ajax and Barcelona groups could outplay their Serie A counterparts but give up one possibility, permit 1 counter, make one particular mistake and expect to be punished.
Cruyff’s words rang as genuine Wednesday evening as they did again then. Ajax dominated the initially leg of their Champions League quarterfinal towards Juventus. They deserved to get but but, their streetwise and vastly knowledgeable Italian opponents fly again household with a attract and an absent target from their only shot on concentrate on. The benefit is now with the Aged Lady and heritage stands by her side. On the 7 situations Juventus have drawn the to start with leg absent from house 1-one, they have progressed six instances together with from Ajax in 1978.
That said, Ajax need to attract strength from this come upon. A group that has scored 100 goals in the Eredivisie, 44 on the street, will back again themselves to score at the Allianz Stadium even with Juventus’ captain and finest defender Giorgio Chiellini envisioned to return for the seven-time defending Italian champions.
The Barcelona-bound midfielder had pretty much double the touches of his Juventus counterpart Miralem Pjanic, Klaas Huntelaar Jersey who often found himself surrounded or rushed by Donny van de Beek. The ease with which Ajax and De Jong in individual circulated the ball highlighted the boundaries of Juventus’ midfield and the absence of Emre Can. The German intercontinental, whose purpose in the comeback towards Atleti — dropping deep to aid the Bianconeri’s create-up, which in change permitted the comprehensive-backs to drive up and extend Diego Simeone’s aspect — was arguably additional keenly felt than that the Chiellini-formed gap in this crew.
Juventus did not set out to engage in a defensive game with Allegri’s intention to stay away from a repeat of the two- defeat in Madrid. Escaping defeat was one particular issue but making certain Juventus were not as passive and arrived away with a precious away goal was another. From that place of look at, the night was a good results. Juventus will not need to have an additional epic evening to book a position in the very last four, but Ajax prompted them a ton of challenges.