UCL 2018/2019 : 5 talking points from matchday 5 of the group stage

#4 Ajax youth coming of age

Matthijs de Ligt is one of the highest rated young defenders in the world

Once the undoubted kings of European football, the Amsterdam-based club have fallen off some way from the heights of the Cruyff era in the 1970s, and have struggled to impose themselves on the continent for the last two decades.

However, what has remained is their uncanny knack for producing or discovering some of the most exciting young talents in world football.

Earlier in the summer, Ajax performed the credible feat of making it to the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in four years, and this is made more impressive by the fact that it came just a season on from their failure to qualify for a European competition for the first time in over 50 years last season.

In the group stage proper, the four time European champions took it a notch further, upping the ante to produce credible results including holding German powerhouse Bayern Munich to a stalemate in their own patch.

Their victory away to AEK Athens on matchday 5 as well as Benfica’s loss to Bayern Munich booked their spot in the Champions League knockout round for the first time since 2006.

Ajax is currently brimming with a lot of youth, and their players are currently among the most exciting prospects in the world, with youngsters like Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, David Neres and Kasper Dolberg to name a few regularly monitored by the biggest clubs in Europe.

On the strength of the current team and its achievement in this season’s Champions League, the future looks bright for the record Dutch champions, and they would do all they can to ensure they keep the core of this squad in place.