As a big Ajax fan football was around one thing in the last week: seeing my club reaching the Champions League. I’ve been quiet on this site after the first match, since I didn’t want to jinx anything. Every Ajax fan will agree with me that the past learned us not to be over excited after one good result. After surviving 2 qualification rounds, the Amsterdam giants played the play-offs against Dinamo Kiev. Ajax Amsterdam won the first match in the Champions League with 3-1 against Dinamo Kiev. It was a good result, but not enough for me to be over confident for the second match.

Ajax Amsterdam Champions League contender

The first ten minutes of the second leg were for the home team. Ajax’ goalkeeper Andre Onana made some important saves to deny Kiev from scoring. After the first ten minutes, Ajax picked it up where they left it in Amsterdam. They started dominating possession and Dusan Tadic had the perfect chance to seal the deal. Ajax was rewarded a penalty and the Serbian placed the ball on the post. This didn’t hurt Ajax, since they kept dominating and creating chances. In hindsight they were never really in trouble, but during the watch it was very nervous to watch. Ajax created a total of 28 chances, against only 6 for the home team.

Dutch football in Europe

The qualification is very important for Ajax, since it means they earn about 40 million extra, but it’s also very important for Dutch football. There are some very talented players in Ajax’ team, which will only grow by playing in the Champions League against the top teams in Europe. This season is the first time that the champions of the Dutch league need to play play-offs to reach the Champions League. There is no direct qualification anymore and this needs to be changed. The reigning Dutch champions PSV will play the second tie in their play-offs tonight. It would be great for Dutch football to have two teams in the Champions League, for the first time since 2010.