Ajax had to cope against Barcelona having only 10 players in the pitch after the defender Joel Veltman tackled down the Brazilian striker Neymar in the opening few minutes of the 2nd half but the Dutch team still managed to come out on top with a 2-1 triumph that maintains their Champions League hopes alive.
Even with Barcelona’s loss they are still qualified and have secured their place into the knockout stages of the tournament but Ac.Milan and Ajax will be fighting for the 2nd spot of Group H.
San Siro is the final stage that will be seeing both clubs leaving it all on the pitch as they desire to come out from the group alongside the Spanish titans Barcelona.
Ajax had to deal with a number of injuries that included Siem de Jong, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Bojan Krkic but their replacements still managed to push their team forward and overcome a Barcelona team that was clearly being felt with the absence of Lionel Messi who is out for the remainder of the year due to an injury.
Danny Hoesen scored the 2nd goal for Ajax at the 42nd minute when he received a rebound from a shot of Viktor Fischer and got past Carles Puyol before firing it into the back of the net.
Following the end of the match, the 22 years old player expressed what it feels like to score against a team like Barcelona.
“You can only dream about this,” Hoesen said. “I had a good feeling before the match. They are probably the best team in the world and to be able to score the winning goal is amazing.”
The morale and confidence level of the team is as high as ever but now the real test awaits them as they have to get a victory against Ac.Milan in order to proceed into the next rounds of the Champions League meanwhile the Italian team are in need of a draw to advance further.