Unable to win at dwelling but once more, Ajax’s nice Champions League run has out of the blue ended.
Ajax could not halt a 26-year winless streak at dwelling within the knockout rounds of the European competitors on Tuesday, dropping 1-0 to Benfica to waste an ideal marketing campaign within the group stage.
Darwin Nunez scored late and Benfica reached the quarterfinals for the primary time in six years. Nunez discovered the web with a 77th-minute header off a free kick from the proper facet to assist Benfica make it to the final eight for the fifth time.
The groups had drawn 2-2 within the first leg in Portugal.
Ajax coach Erik ten Hag stated he was “hoping for a moment of magic” ultimately, nevertheless it by no means occurred.
“Our positional play was excellent,” he stated. “We were very good on the ball. I gave my players a big compliment. Maybe only the creativity was lacking. So it’s bitter that one moment of inattention means you’re eliminated.”
Ajax was considered one of three groups that gained all six group-stage matches, together with Liverpool and Bayern. The Dutch membership was within the final 16 for the second time since 2006, although it reached the semifinals the final time it acquired this far three seasons in the past. It did not win any of its dwelling video games within the knockout stage then both, with its final such victory coming in opposition to Borussia Dortmund within the 1996 quarterfinals.
Ajax had already equaled its most prolific Champions League marketing campaign with 22 targets however struggled to capitalize on its probabilities regardless of dominating in Amsterdam. It had 16 whole makes an attempt in opposition to 4 by the guests, which targeted on defending effectively from the beginning.
Striker Sebastien Haller, the primary participant to attain in his opening seven Champions League video games and the quickest to achieve 11 targets within the competitors’s historical past, had a objective disallowed for offside early within the recreation.
“If we defend well, we know that in attack we have great players who can find the space to score at any time,” Benfica defender Nicolas Otamendi stated. “We knew we couldn’t give any chance to a team like Ajax.”
Two-time European champion Benfica, which started this yr’s marketing campaign within the third qualifying spherical, was eradicated by Bayern Munich within the 2016 quarterfinals.
The win prolonged Benfica’s unbeaten run in all competitions to eight video games, although it was coming off a 1-1 dwelling draw in opposition to Vizela within the Portuguese league on Friday.
In the opposite round-of-16 match Tuesday, Atletico Madrid superior 2-1 on combination after beating Manchester United 1-0 in England.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
