Juventus v Ajax: Champions League quarter-final – live!
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Welcome to a tie that remains very much alive. Sure, Juventus are well placed to progress, coming into the game with a 1-1 draw from the away leg. But Ajax are capable of scoring in Turin, since they score nearly everywhere: they’ve hit 103 goals in 30 domestic league matches this season and, of course, they waltzed to a 4-1 win at Real Madrid in the last round. They haven’t lost an away match in European competition this season, whereas Juventus have already been beaten on their own patch by a spluttering Manchester United outfit. So this is a very difficult mission for the Dutch side, but not an impossible one.
Having said that, in order to advance, a side full of exciting young players will have to stifle a team who are the epitome of wiliness and are inspired by one of the all-time greats: the Dutch league leaders may have ousted the three-in-a-row European champions, but they still have to find a way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from winning a fourth successive Champions League. Beating Him and the rest of the Old Lady would be a heck of a way for the likes of Frankie De Jong, David Neres and Matthijs De Ligt to confirm themselves as some of the hottest prospects in European football before hightailing it off to more monied clubs. And we can also look out to for more fun from slightly older tricksters such as Hakim Ziyech, Dusan Tadic and, go on then, Daley Blind. All in all, we’ve got ourselves a game here. Let’s be having you!