CHAMPIONS LEAGUE | AJAX 1 REAL MADRID 2

UEFA Champions League was back tonight after its "in between phase" break with the last 16 teams knock out home & away stage now in motion. Three Spanish Football Clubs are still in the action & while FC Barcelona & Atletico de Madrid play next week, tonight it was REAL MADRID CF which travelled to Holland to play AJAX OF AMSTERDAM. The Final result was a 1 - 2 victory for Real Madrid which still has to be fully secured back in Madrid in the second leg game against Ajax. 

Here are the starting line-ups for both Teams:

REAL MADRID: Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Nacho, Sergio Ramos, Reguilon; Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric; Vinicius, Gareth Bale & Karim Benzema.

AJAX: Onana; Tagliafico, Blind, De Ligt, Mazraoui; De Jong, Van de Beek, Ziyech; Neres, Schone & Tadic.

The final result and 1 - 2 victory for Madrid was not the real picture of reality for this game. Ajax of Amsterdam played much better most of the encounter taking the initiative & attacking in waves. The Dutch Club created many occasions & forced Real Madrid on the back foot most of the night, especially the first 50-60 mins of the match.

The Ajax midfielders neutralized Benzema, Bale & Kroos not allowing the Spanish playmakers space to move the ball around & forced them to commit many errors. The Dutch exploited the left wing giving Carvajal a busy night of defending & also forcing mistakes to later create opportunities.

Ajax hit the post in the 25th min when Tadic had his chance, & a 38th min "goal" through a Tagliafico header was disallowed when the "VAR" sentenced that an Ajax player obstructed Real Madrid goalie Courtois in attempting to get to the ball. Controversial & will be part of the ongoing post-match debates.

Real Madrid was very quiet upfront with only a very good Vinicius opportunity appearing which was well saved by Ajax goalie Onana. 

Real Madrid has (& had tonight) the "luck of the Champions" & fully capitalised on their little goal opportunities to score both goals. The first was a wonderful play by Vinicius coming in from his wing & dragging up to 4 Ajax defenders to find BENZEMA who scored in the 60th min. 

Ajax kept with their game plan & regained control of the game with excellent midfield work & attacking Football. It was not long that they were rightly rewarded for their efforts when ZIYECH scored the equalizer in the 75th min. Seemed some justice was being done.

However, Real Madrid put on Asensio to give the forward line fresh legs & he was quickly announcing with great opportunities what was to come. In a quick counter attack Carvajal made a run down his wing & made a precision pass to find ASENSIO who knocked in the winning goal in the 86th min. This summed up Real Madrid´s night, 3-4 opportunities & 2 goals! Ajax will be disappointed as they deserved at least a draw, however the experience of the Real Madrid players shone through in this game.

Summarizing, Ajax midfielder De Jong looks like a real fine Football player & FC Barcelona will have a great asset in coming years. Sergio Ramos was solid tonight but will miss the next Champions League match in Madrid due to yellow card accumulation. Benzema is in on a goal scoring streak but went off with thigh problems. 

The tie is still open for the return Madrid tie & Ajax still has a chance, but for now Real Madrid has the advantage.