From the country of Johan Cruyff....

    Football fairytales exist, yes they do! First they put the Champions League giants to bed in their own backyard and now these young boys from Amsterdam have knocked out the greatest ever player in the Champions league. This must be like a dream for Ajax but a lovely one. Though they were not expected to win on both the occasions, nobody can stick their tongue out and say that they didn't deserve it. They definitely played the better football over 180 minutes in both the ties and were rewarded for it. When Real Madrid beat Ajax 2-1 in Amsterdam, everybody said that Madrid switch it on when they need to but it needed something incredibly special from Ajax to beat Madrid at the Bernebeu. They started the game confidently and my god, didn't they put on one of the greatest performances by any visiting team at the Santiago Bernebeu. Their front three were brilliant especially Dusan Tadic and were supported well by de Jong in the midfield and de Ligt and Blind in central defence. Though Real Madrid were not in a great form, to go to Madrid and produce that kind of performance against 80,000 screaming fans takes some doing. They were drawn with Juventus in the Quarter finals. Very few gave them a chance before the first leg. They put on a descent performance against Ronaldo and Juventus at the iconic Johan Cruyff Arena. The scoreline was 1-1 when they landed in Turin. With the experience of Juventus and obviously the Ronaldo factor made people rule Ajax out of the tie. It started well for Juve with another Cristiano header but Ajax levelled shortly after and what they did in second half was absolutely stunning. Juventus were caught on the counter a number of times by the young guns from Ajax. They literally ripped Juventus apart in the midfield. De Jong and de Beek simply destroyed Bernaderschi and Matuidi in the midfield. When those two got the ball forward, Tadic, Neres and Ziyech were brilliant as well. If only they had been smarter and clinical, this tie wouldn't be as close as it ended up to be. If Szczesny hadn't made those saves, it could easily have been 4-1 or 5-1.
     From the country of the great Johan Cruyff, the greatest philosopher our game has ever had, the Dutch academy is known for producing world class players for years gone by. It wasn't going well for the Dutch national team in the recent past but this Ajax team has shot Netherlands back into fame. The Dutch league is getting talked about, the national team is also getting better so this has been a brilliant story for Ajax and for the Netherlands as well. The saddest part is that these players won't be together from the next season onwards. There are some outstanding players in this team and the bigger clubs will be after them at the end of this season. De Jong and De Ligt are special players. Tadic came to Ajax from Southampton and though he is in his late 20s, he produced one of the best individual performances in the Champions League this year. He was probably the best player in Europe at the Bernebeu. Rio Ferdinand said that De Ligt is probably the best Centre half on the planet right now. Everything Ajax create in the midfield or in attack, comes from De Jong and is already linked to Barcelona. So there is no doubt that these players will leave Amsterdam next season. It's not about being negative but it is what it is. Therefore it is even more special if they achieve more, if this is not enough, before they all seperate. It's unlikely that they will go all the way but if you knock two of the biggest clubs in Europe out of the competition, there is no reason why you shouldn't believe in yourself!