Tottenham Down Ajax And Will Face Liverpool In The Champions League Final As Lucas Moura Performs Three Magic Tricks! Highlights. Player Ratings. Comments And Stats.
By: Marc Gingell
Tottenham came into the Johan Cruijff Arena 1-0 down and after 35 minutes their task seemed impossible as Ajax had moved into a commanding 3-0 lead. Tottenham had to do a Liverpool and claw back a 3-0 deficit in 55 minutes plus added time. Surely they couldn’t do that. Could they. Surely Liverpool had emptied the Champions League miracle pot the night before! Hadn’t they?
Added time stretched to eight minutes and in the 6th minute of that, Lucas Moura who owned the Cruijff Arena magic pot pulled out his third Moura Magic Moment.
Dele Alli found Moura in space just inside Ajax penalty area. As two defenders closed the gap Moura instinctively spun and fired a low left-foot shot into the corner. Mauricio Pochettino sunk to his knees with his head on the turf and his hands covering his face.
Match Details
| 08-05-2019 | Johan Cruijff Arena | Ajax | 2-3 | Tottenham Hotspur |
| KO:20:00 | Att: 52,641 | Matthijs de Ligt 5′ | Lucas Moura 55′, 59′, 90+6′ | |
| REF: D Brych | Hakim Ziyech 35′ | |||
| Aggregate 3-3 | ||||
| Tottenham Win On Away Goals | ||||
Lucas Moura
Lucas Moura, 26 and from São Paulo, Brazil, has been used more as a bit player since his 31st January 2018 move to Tottenham from Paris Saint-Germain for a reported £25 million. He started this season as first choice as Pochettino seemed to let his World Cup stars have more time to recover. As the season progressed he spent more time starting from the bench.
That changed as Tottenham’s injuries began to mount up and he scored his first Spurs hat-trick in the 4-0 home win against Huddersfield. Now he has his second. Three instinctively taken, never to be forgotten clinical strikers goals and a place in Tottenham’s fans hearts forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqlVPJzC3nY
Player Ratings
Ajax: Onana (4), Mazroui (5), De Ligt (6), Blind (5), Tagliafico (5), Schone (4), Van de Beek (5), De Jong (5), Ziyech (7), Tadic (6), Dolberg (5)
Subs: Veltman (5), Sinkgraven (5), Magallan (5)
Tottenham: Lloris (6), Trippier (5), Alderweireld (6), Vertonghen (6), Rose (7), Wanyama (5), Sissoko (6), Eriksen (6), Alli (8), Lucas (9), Son (6)
Subs: Llorente (7), Lamela (5), Davies (5)
Man of the match: Lucas Moura
Opta Stats
- The 2019 Champions League final will be only the third major European final in history to feature two English teams, after the 1972 UEFA Cup final (Spurs vs Wolves) and 2008 Champions League final (Man Utd vs Chelsea).
- Two of the six occasions in Champions League history of a side losing the first leg of the semi-final and progressing have been Liverpool and Spurs this season.
- Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt became the fourth teenager to score in a Champions League semi-final, after Nordin Wooter (1996, Ajax), Obafemi Martins (2003, Inter Milan) and Kylian Mbappé (2017, Monaco).
- Tottenham Hotspur have reached the European Cup/Champions League final for the very first time.
Spurs are only the second team in Champions League history to lose the first leg of the semi-final at home and progress to the final – the other was Ajax in 1995-96 against Panathinaikos. - English teams have come from two or more goals behind to win on seven occasions in Champions League history – four more than clubs of any other nation. Indeed, four of the last five occasions have been English teams.
- Ajax’s Dusan Tadic has been involved in 55 goals in 54 appearances in all competitions this season (34 goals, 21 assists).
- Spurs were the first team to come two goals behind to win in a Champions League semi-final since Manchester United in 1999 against Juventus.
- Ajax have won none of their last eight home Champions League knockout matches (W0 D4 L4), a run stretching back to 1996.
- Spurs’ Lucas Moura is only the fifth player to score a Champions League semi-final hat-trick, and first since Cristiano Ronaldo in May 2017 for Real Madrid against Atletico Madrid.
- Spurs will be the eighth different English team to feature in a European Cup/Champions League final, after Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest; England have had more different teams in the final of the competition than any other nation.
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