Young, exciting and on the verge of a European final: Ajax stir memories of past glories

Ian Hawkey previews the Europa League semi-final second leg between Ajax and Lyon.

Bertrand Traore, centre, scored twice in the first leg to help Ajax to a 4-1 advantage against Lyon ahead of the return leg in France. Michael Kooren / Reuters

The least appropriate question to put to most of the Ajax players who have pushed the club to the brink of a first European final in 21 years would be about any memories they may nurse about those old glories. There may be a good spread of Dutchmen in the side, home-grown talents, but most are far too young to remember the 1990s.

The Europa League has been invigorated by a millennial rush, cocky, precocious and exciting. Of the 14 Ajax players who took part in the whirlwind 4-1 win over Olympique Lyonnais last week, gaining the substantial advantage they take into Thursday night’s semi-final second leg in France, seven were not yet born when Ajax lost on penalties to Juventus in the 1996 Uefa Champions League final, the last of the several European finals the club have played in. Another three had not celebrated a first birthday.

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Only Lasse Schone, the experienced Dane, might have stayed up late to watch that final, although by the time the shoot-out arrived it would have been well past his bed-time. He was nine years old. Justin Kluivert, meanwhile, will have heard about the game plenty of times, but second-hand. His father, Patrick, played for the losing Ajax team. Son Justin was born three years later.

Ajax’s youth make their unlikely run to the tail-end of a major competition an appealing spring storyline, not least because it seems to return the club to their traditions, of bold trust in young talent, as a fertile environment for aspiring players to learn and mature quickly.

The dashing attacking style that Peter Bosz’s side have promoted in the latter stages of the Europa League appeals to nostalgics, too, to those with longer recall of the last century, to when Ajax were the club of the late Johan Cruyff, after whom their Amsterdam Arena is to be renamed.

Cruyff would have enjoyed the pluck of this Ajax, the edge-of-the seat adventures of their run in Europe. They pipped Schalke 4-3 on aggregate after extra-time in their quarter-final. They had started that tie as outsiders.

Up against Lyon, they were second-favourites when the draw for the last-four was made, and by the end of a see-saw 90 minutes, manager Bosz had counted up so many chances that, catching his breath, he said: “That could have ended up with a 9-4 or even a 12-6 scoreline.”

He was not exaggerating by much. The final tally of 24 shots on target — eight of them Lyon efforts — barely told the story of a contest in which Anthony Lopes in the Lyon goal made some excellent stops.

Lyon’s belief they have a chance of overcoming the three-goal deficit is partly based on the open nature of the first-leg, the fact that Schalke at one stage went 3-0 up against a loose Ajax in the second leg of the quarter-final, and, at the back of their minds, that Ajax’s inexperience is something that might be tested by the pressure of an early goal or two.

“What we need is intensity, but organised intensity,” said Bruno Genesio, the Lyon manager. “Yes, Ajax will create chances but we have to stay calm and keep hold of the ball. Anything is possible.”

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has even coined a term for what his club must do. He calls it the ‘Remontajax’, a marriage of the French word for comeback with the name of the opponents.

Genesio hopes the possibility of Remontajax, a dramatic recovery, will be enhanced by the return to fitness of striker and leading scorer Alex Lacazette, fit enough only for 15 late minutes of the first leg, by which time Betrand Traore, the 21-year-old forward on loan from Chelsea, had scored his second goal of the tie and Ajax’s fourth of the night.

Bosz, for his part, has defenders Nick Viergever and Joel Veltman back from suspension to police a Lyon who, Ajax will know, have plenty of goals in them. They have 20 so far in the Europa League knockout phase. Fasten your seat-belts.

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