Ajax's winning run in the 2021/22 Champions League continued on Wednesday evening. The Dutch outfit beat Borussia Dortmund away from home by a scoreline of 3-1, with Sebastien Haller and Davy Klaassen's late goals securing all three points.
It was certainly an entertaining game in Germany, one which saw Mats Hummels dubiously sent off just before the half-hour mark for a tackle on Brazilian winger Antony. On replay, it appeared to be nothing more than a routine foul by the defender, one that was worthy of a yellow card at most. But VAR stepped in and controversially declared that the tackle should be punished as severely as possible.
Dortmund still managed to take the lead with 10-men, though, Marco Reus firing home from the penalty spot just before half-time. But Ajax came back strongly in the second period and they were deservedly level in the 72nd-minute through the talismanic figure that is Dusan Tadic.
And the Serbian forward well and truly put his body on the line to draw the Dutch side level at Signal Iduna Park. Tadic just about managed to guide the ball over the line from close-range, but milliseconds after he converted the chance, the former Southampton man crashed into the post. Unfortunately, it was his private parts that took the full force of the collision. Ouch. Dusan is now the proud owner of the most painful-looking Champions League goal in history.
Fortuanley, the 32-year-old was able to continue playing after losing his fight with the post in agonising fashion. Ajax are now officially through to the knockout stage and they're certainly going to be a tough team to stop in Europe this season.
The likes of Tadic, Haller and Antony are all performing to a ridiculously high standard and who knows, they may even emulate the team that reached the semi-finals back in 2018/19. Ajax also became the first Dutch team to win their first four matches in a single Champions League campaign, while they celebrated four successive wins in the competition for the first time since March 1996.
"It's wonderful; four matches and 12 points," captain Tadic – who has been directly involved in 20 goals in 28 Champions League matches for Ajax (nine goals and 11 assists) – at least eight more than any other player at the club. "It's a great feeling to beat such a good team in a great stadium like this. I thought we played very poorly in the first half. We lost possession too often. At half-time we said that we had to move the ball round faster and cut out the mistakes. The second half was much better," added Tadic.
Despite another win, Ajax head coach Erik ten Hag was not completely satisfied post-match on the road. "We have to learn our lessons from how we played in the first half if we want to progress and learn. We made a lot of mistakes and let our opponents play to their strengths," he said. "We were too impatient, and surrendered possession far too often. But we also showed that we can play poorly for part of the game and still beat a strong opponent."
Haller, meanwhile, became only the fifth player to score in each of his first four Champions League appearances, after Ze Carlos (1993), Alessandro Del Piero (1995), Diego Costa (2014) and Erling Haaland (2019).