I’ve often seen people talk about how Ajax reached the UCL semis in the 18/19 season and had a great season,but no one talks about Villarreal , they also had a great run to the UCL semi finals in 21/22 , teams like lyon also reached the semi finals in 19/20 ,yet no one talks about these teams.what was so great about Ajax’s run that season ?
Ajax was a legit threat to win and should have been in the final. Lyon bring during the covid bubble probably does not help on their side.
Lol you’re right. I already forgot about Villarreal and Lyon semifinals despite it was after Ajax semifinal!
What about the good old Deportivo de La Coruña 03/04 run. Got beat by the winners Porto in the semi by a penalty.
Valeron, Luque, Pandiani, Scaloni, Manuel Pablo, Munitis… What a team
After that turnaround vs AC they should have won it is probably why.
Depor getting to the semis in 2003-04 wasn’t much of a shock though. They’d been one of the best teams in Europe for quite a while by then.
Meh I think Villarreal in 2006 had a bigger chance
Or Valencia losing the final two years in a row, 2000 and 2001.
Oh yeah, they are a good shout as well. I just had a soft spot for that Depo team
Their play style .team filled up with talents , young talents and the way they defeated their opposition .they had it difficult from the start but they had strong mentality playing the likes of bayern defeated juventus defending champions real madrid(4-1 trashing in their OWN stadium) and just missing it out due to a comeback from lucas moura going out with a heart break .All in all that season was memorable and also one small factor adding to that was it war probably the best ucl season ever excluding the final.messi carryjob for barcelona liverpool comeback ajax trashing real spurs vs city drama spurs comeback against ajax makes people remeber that side even more
In my opinion, it was probably a combination of them defeating the reigning 3 time champions Real Madrid, who are also the most prestigious club of all time as well as defeating Ronaldo’s Juventus in their first season, the most popular player in the world. They also had great exciting young players such as De Ligt, De Jong & David Neres, whereas Villareal & Lyon did have great players, I feel as though people viewed them more so as amazing well functioning “units”. Finally, Ajax is a far more prestigious club historically than either of the other 2 so that probably played a part in it, people loved seeing Ajax back at the top of European football.
Van De Beek as well! He’s become a bit of a meme now but at Ajax he was fucking brilliant to watch! United fan so still hoping it happens for him but it doesn’t look likely, I hope he gets a move maybe even back to Ajax and recovers his form from that season because he was excellent.
Real Madrid pulled back their bid for Vd Beek, he really only played a handful of good games and was already in poor form when he left Ajax. He was incredibly hyped in England but many in the Netherlands questioned his talent. Vd Beek generally worked hard but the likes of De Jong, De Ligt, Onana and Ziyech were the much bigger talents.
Omg yes, such a shame what’s happened to him I completely forgot he existed lol. Hope he turns hid career around :/
As a Spurs fan, thought Ziyech and Tadic were great in that leg.
Tadic was one of the best players in the world that season and there’s nothing that convinces me otherwise.
The manner in which they were beating teams was incredible. L’Équipe gave Tadic a perfect rating for his performance against Madrid. Tadic was a player who ‘didn’t make it’ in the EPL.
Villareal getting there wasn’t exactly a great watch. Lyon actually was.
I wonder if the Ajax one was because so many players went off to top tier clubs soon after, so the story kept getting told during each move.
Because the football they played was much better than Villarreal and Lyon. Take out a major bottle job they would have been rightfully champions league finalists
Take out a major bottle job
That shouldn’t be ignored though, blowing a three goal lead to the team traditionally known for big bottle jobs doesn’t get talked about enough.
Worth mentioning that Villarreal also had their own bottlejob. Before that they weren’t far away from being finalists themselves.
Villarreal beat an out of form Juve and scraped past Bayern
Lyon beat out of form Juve and City
Ajax beat back-to-back-to-back holders Madrid 4-1 at their own home and beat CR7’s “unstoppable” Juve convincingly
Ajax had good young players like De Jong, De Ligt and more experienced ones like Tadic and Onana
Villarreal and Lyon didn’t have many noteworthy players
Lyon’s run also came in the abridged 2019-20 season so it didn’t feel like a “proper” CL either.
Pau Torres, Gerard Moreno and Parejo are pretty noteworthy
Sorry to say but ajax beat out of form madrid, not taking anything away from them though…
Probably the worst Madrid side we have seen in a long time.
Courtois was leaking goals for fun, Ronaldo had just left, Vini hadn’t gotten into form, Bale’s heart wasn’t in it anymore, Rodrygo hadn’t arrived.
It shouldn’t take away from Ajax but neither should anything from Villareal or Lyon.
Madrid lost 18 games that season. Incredible really.
Ajax didn’t just beat Madrid they completely outplayed them. They also went toe to toe with Bayern who won it a year later. And were very unlucky not to be in the final and maybe could have won it.
It has been a while since they got so close, and the team was super young. And they beat teams with pretty neat scores.
Monaco was the most entertaining imo, several were younger players, you knew the team was gonna get ripped apart but what a fun team to watch
I think they made it to semis, maybe just quarterfinals
That Villarreal run made me start appreciating them what they did is just wow
Probably because Ajax beat the greatest Real Madrid that came from winning the threepeat in the UCL and Ronaldo’s Juventus. Meanwhile Lyon and Villarreal lucked their way into the semifinals. While yes, Villarreal beating Bayern was impressive on its own right (take notes Barca), their collapse against Liverpool was less to be desired. Especially from goalkeeper Rulli who pulled a Karius and conceded two of the dumbest goals of all time when it looked like a possible comeback against Liverpool was real.
I honestly have no recollection of Lyon’s run mostly because of the sad state the club is in right now seeing them last in Ligue 1. But if I were to rank these teams in terms of underdog status it would be:
Ajax >>>>>>>>>>> Villarreal > Lyon
Probably has something to do with the fact that Ajax side had some notable individuals with significant staying power since - most importantly it was their breakthrough season in European football
I mean De Ligt, De Jong, Onana, Ziyech, Mazraoui all went to some of the biggest teams in world football shortly after.
By comparison, Lyon in 19/20 for instance couldn’t offer any better by way of posterity than Depay. Nobody in that team has since been at a huge club, ergo less people talk about it.
The Villarreal side in the semis, are you talking about 06 or 2022? 22 just doesn’t have much by way of staying power for players involved. 06 team’s achievement just suffers from not being as recent.
lyon had players like bruno guimares, rayan cherki, and aouar.
Ajax are a European superpower who have in recent years been hamstrung and left behind by the TV money brought in by the top leagues.
People want to see Ajax back amongst the top teams and are rooting for them to return to what they once were. Villarreal and others are good underdog stories, but nobody really thinks it’s possible for them to be at the top table of European football.