Champions League: Youthful Ajax reinvent Total Football in Bernabeu to overwhelm featureless Real Madrid in last-16

On a night of extraordinary football, Ajax Amsterdam’s ensemble of feather-thin youth dissected the kings of European football with superb precision in the 62nd minute as they overwhelmed a formless and featureless Real Madrid with barnstorming, reinvented Total Football. Noussair Mazraoui kept the ball in play with a slide near – and almost over – the touchline, Hakim Ziyech passed to Nicolás Tagliafico and after a touch from Donny van de Beek the ball meandered gently to Dusan Tadic, whose composure, execution and turn to score a superlative third goal were but a microcosm of his outstanding 90 minutes.

The build-up play had been seamless, much like Tadic’s and Ajax’s entire game. They played with conviction and impetus, overpowering a team without cohesion, an eleven that presented itself as a group of fading and isolated prima donnas, whose tired and dejected mode of play were no match for the collective superiority of the Dutch. Above all, Ajax demonstrated that football is still a game, a pastime to enjoy and to thrill. There was levity and gaiety to their game that was both virtuous and playful, yet artistic and forceful.

They proffered touches of hallucinogenic proportions – Tadic with a Zinedine Zidane roulette in teeing up the opening goal, Barcelona-bound Frenkie de Jong innocuously dancing his way past Luka Modric – and delighted with their application: Daley Blind’s determination, Matthijs de Ligt’s elegance, van de Beek’s depth, Ziyech’s industry all contributed to a much-needed result in European football – a giant had been slain over two legs in the knockout phase of the competition. It was marvellously Thespian as Ajax’s victory foreshadowed that their talent factory will be picked apart this summer by elite clubs from across Europe, perhaps Real Madrid included.

Minutes after the goal from Tadic, who had assisted Ajax’s first two strikes inside 20 minutes, Real Madrid substitute Gareth Bale squandered a fine opportunity inside the Dutch box, allowing for an easy save from Ajax’s goalkeeper André Onana. The Cameroonian leaned to his right, but saved with his left foot as Bale struck a low trickle, betraying a man without conviction. The Welshman had little confidence, like the rest of his team.

The hosts endured a night of torment in which they showed nothing of the collective understanding and individual performances that had so galvanised their opponents. In fact, the European champions exhibited no endeavour whatsoever. They simply came across as vulnerable. Midfielder Toni Kroos proved indeed to be a diesel tractor, slow and ineffective. Marcelo didn’t come off the bench and Bale had little impact as a substitute, further straining his relationship with the Bernabeu faithful. In all the acrimony Modric drowned.

Inside the half an hour, Madrid had two withdraw both Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius because of injuries. The young, raw Brazilian has rapidly become a focal point of Solari’s team and his enforced substitution was the signpost for a total capitulation from the Spanish giants. In the stands, Sergio Ramos, the suspended captain, was planning for a future that would never arrive.

The defeat signalled the end of a generation which disintegrated after the departures of both coach Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo last season. Would the Portuguese talisman have saved Real Madrid? In the past seasons, the duo had reaffirmed Madrid’s status as Europe’s sole superpower with functional football and a trademark of winning, but the sense that Madrid never were a team always lingered and they almost became undone in their second-round matchup with Paris Saint-Germain last year. The double coach-player exit resulted in a transitional season in which Florentino Perez’s recruiting strategy – or rather lack of it – backfired.

The all-powerful chairman plays too many roles at the Bernabeu. His recipe for success – spending – may require a tweak: Madrid need a director of football and a decentralisation of powers. This then is the perfect time to enact change: there is no rolling back to the Zidane years and with nothing left to play for this season Real Madrid can plan for the future and a time when they will dominate Europe once more and brush aside teams like Ajax Amsterdam.