Ajax Amsterdam: The return of a forgotten empire!

Ajax Amsterdam is considered the most successful football team in the land of tulips. The concrete proof is that the team is holding an "unprecedented" record of 33 Dutch championships; 18 times crowned in the Dutch National Cup and 4 times champion in the C1 arena (now the Champions League) along with countless large and small championships in the domestic and continental arenas.

This is also the team that was once the cradle for football talents of the team nicknamed “The Orange Storm”. Representative of that golden generation are Rinus Michels, legend Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp…

Ajax Amsterdam is considered the most successful team in Dutch football.

However, after a period of brilliant success, along with the progress of other advanced football teams, Ajax Amstesdam also began to decline over time, they are no longer considered the giant of European football. When after winning the Champions League in the 1994-1995 season until now, every year that passes, enthusiastic fans have to express regret because their beloved team has gone through a year of failure in the European arena.

For more than two decades, the team known as “The Children of God” has never advanced to the quarter-finals of the most prestigious tournament in the old continent. If not eliminated early in the group stage, it will have to stop after the round of 16. Ajax Amsterdam’s achievement of reaching the final of the Europa League in the 2016-17 season has rekindled hope of returning to the peak period for Dutch football, but, apart from that achievement, Ajax is still not strong enough to compete with the giants of continental football.

This season will probably be seen as an exception to what has happened over the past 20 years, with Ajax showing great signs of being extremely outstanding in the Champions League arena. They played excellently against representatives of the German and Greek champions Bayern, AEK Athens and the Portuguese runners-up Benfica to secure a ticket to the next round of the playoffs.

Being in the match for the 16 strongest teams when being in the same group with strong opponents is a success for the team at Amsterdam Arena. However, the representative of Dutch football created an earthquake when turning the reigning Champions League champion Real Madrid into the former king with a score of 5-3 after 2 matches in the quarterfinals. Including an impressive victory with a terrifying score of 4-1 right at the Bernabeu of the White Vultures.

Defeating Juventus to reach the Champions League semi-finals marked a very impressive return for the team from the Netherlands. Photo: Twitter

After that historic victory, experts and football fans still only considered the representative from the Tulip country as a temporary phenomenon. They did not think Ajax would go far when their opponent was a Juventus team in high form and possessing CR7, the star who won 4 Champions League titles in the last 5 years.

However, when the final whistle blew at the home ground of the “Old Lady of Turin”, the representative from the Netherlands once again created an earthquake by eliminating the leading candidate for the championship title from the game. Coincidentally, they once again defeated the home team Juventus right at their home ground.

To create a magical journey against the "Bogeymen" of European football like Real and Juventus, coach Erik Ten Hag's team used the high-level total pressing style of play that is the trademark of Dutch teams.

They have a lot of technical players. Ajax's squad is a combination of a calm but excellent defender, a talented and technical midfielder, and a passionate forward line. That group has created real earthquakes in the toughest arena of the old continent.

It will be too early to confirm Ajax's success in the Champions League this season. But with what Ajax has shown at the moment, they have the ability to go beyond the expectations of the fans, thereby restoring the image of an empire that seemed to have been forgotten in the past.