Frenkie de Jong fools Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr. with a single piece of brilliant skill during the second leg.
Real Madrid are taking on Ajax in the second leg of the tie in the round-of-16 of the Champions League.
The hosts didn’t enjoy a good start in the game as the Dutch side resumed from where they left in the first leg. Ajax were the far better team in the first half and reaped rewards of their attacking game as they scored two quick-fire goals to gain a lead in the tie.
Dusan Tadic, the Serbian forward who Ajax signed for Southampton, ripped Real Madrid’s defence apart as he provided assists for both the goals in the game.
Real Madrid also faced two major setbacks in the first half as their two in-form attackers, Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius Jr. were forced to leave the field with injuries.
Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio replaced the injured duo.
However, before Vinicius left the field, he was subject to being fooled by a brilliant piece of skill from Ajax’s midfielder, Frenkie De Jong.
Real Madrid’s players will see more of the Dutch youngster as De Jong would join Barcelona at the beginning of the new season. However, the 21-year-old didn’t shy away from showing a trailer of what was about to come in the El Clasico next season, as he tricked Vinicius and Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric.
De Jong received the ball in a dangerous area, at a time when Real Madrid were desperately chasing the game. However, the midfielder kept his calm.
He initially tricked Vinicius Jr. into thinking that he would give a return pass, and then fooled Modric into thinking the same as he created space and eased the pressure.
Here’s the video:
Frenkie De Jong has been brilliant for Ajax throughout the season and was immense in the first leg against Real Madrid as well.
Barcelona announced the signing of De Jong during the January transfer window. It was earlier reported that Real Madrid were also chasing the midfielder.
Real have had a shaky season so far. After their campaign seemingly came back on track after the appointment of Santiago Solari, Real Madrid faced a huge blow to their chances for domestic silverware last week.
The Los Blancos lost to Barcelona twice within three days, including a loss in the Copa del Rey semifinal.
Ernesto Valverde’s side registered a 1-0 victory over Real at the Santiago Bernabeu on the weekend, thus taking a massive 12 point lead over their arch-rivals.
Real Madrid’s only hopes of a trophy come from the Champions League, but even this chance seems to be slipping away as the side has been far from their best in the first half of the second leg so far.
Justifiably, there have been speculations over Santiago Solari’s future at Real Madrid as well. The Spaniard was appointed only last year in October after the side suffered a 5-1 loss to Barcelona at Camp Nou.
However, Solari dismissed the speculations in the press conference ahead of the game against Ajax.
“This club has always had more candidates than Julia Roberts, it’s quite normal,” Solari said.
“We have to continue competing until the end in La Liga. We now have the Champions League and we have to go through the tie against Ajax.
“We have to be more clinical, have more presence. It’s part of our job and we must try to improve it. Luck is a component and it exists.
“We have had a lot of chances in the last matches and we have to put them away as we have done in other matches. That’s the way it is and that’s football.”
