Grand Reunion Occurs in the 2018-19 Champions League Semifinals

DBasia.news –  Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Ajax Amsterdam and Barcelona, ​​are the four teams that will compete in the 2018-19 Champions League semifinals.  Two representatives from the UK while the rest from the Netherlands and Spain.

There is no draw for the semi-final phase because the chart in the top four has already been determined when the Champions League quarter-final was drawn.  As a result, Tottenham Hotspur will meet with Ajax Amsterdam, while last season’s finalists, Liverpool, will face Barcelona.

Tottenham advanced to the semifinals by getting rid of Manchester City through the aggressiveness of away goals 4-4.  Winning 1-0 in the first leg, Spurs scored three goals at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday (18/4) early morning Western Indonesian Time, through two goals from Son Heung-min and Fernando Llorente.

Pep Guardiola’s Man City scored four goals via two goals from Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero.  The Citizens won 4-3, but lost the aggressiveness of away goals.

Whereas Ajax continues the cinderella story in the Champions League.  After getting rid of the three-time defending champion, Real Madrid, Erik ten Hag’s Ajax buried Juventus’ dream which was reinforced by Cristiano Ronaldo with a 2-1 victory in the second leg which took place in Turin.

Ajax scored 3-2 on aggregate with goals from David Neres, Donny van de Beek, and Matthijs de Ligt.  While the two Juventus goals, in the first leg two, were scored by the same player: Cristiano Ronaldo.

Then, Barcelona defeated Manchester United through a 4-0 aggregate goal by Luke Shaw’s own goal, two goals from Lionel Messi, and Philippe Coutinho.  The Blaugrana showed their class differences with the Red Devils and also showed the feasibility to become champions this season.

Finally, Liverpool without constraint means when getting rid of Porto with a total aggregate goal 6-1.  Winning 2-0 at Anfield with goals from Naby Keita and Roberto Firmino, the Reds won 4-1 in the second leg with goals from Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Firmino, and Virgil van Dijk, which was only minimized by Eder Militao.

Massive Reunion

Judging by the four teams in the Champions League semifinals, from Tottenham’s meeting against Ajax and Barcelona against Liverpool, a massive reunion took place between the four clubs.  Tottenham send the most representatives of players who have strengthened Ajax.

It’s no secret that Ajax is known as a producer of talented talents in the world.  Some alumni of the academy and their first team are already widespread in Europe, some who retired to become famous legends, who are still playing are quite popular.

Davinson Sanchez, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, and Christian Eriksen, are four names from Tottenham who have played at Ajax.  Of course they will not be familiar with the style of Ajax football, as well as the atmosphere at Johan Cruyff Arena.

While at the Barcelona counter-Liverpool meeting, Anfield will be hosting the arrival of both The Reds former players Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez.  Anfield’s public response to both is predicted to be 180 degrees different.

Suarez will be warmly welcomed because he has a good relationship with fans, moreover El Pistolero has been Liverpool’s top scorer in the 2013-14 season and played there in mid 2011-2014.

Unlike Suarez, Coutinho, who had played at Liverpool in 2013-2018, was allegedly not warmly welcomed because of the way he left Liverpool in January 2018 ago.

Despite giving Liverpool huge financial income with sales of 142 million pounds to Barcelona, ​​Coutinho tended to force his will to leave.  In fact, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool want to keep it.

It is interesting to wait, whether one of the players will come back to haunt the former club and end their journey, or on the contrary the club will abandon the ex-players’ efforts to advance to the final.