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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
THEIR dream adventure, scripted over a period of 11 months, 10 European cities and over 1 620 minutes of explosive action, might have cruelly ended in a flood of tears, but Ajax Amsterdam’s youth brigade have left a huge impression around the world.

A goal, five minutes into time added on at the Johan Cruyff Arena, on Wednesday night, brought a dramatic ending to the Dutch giants’ Euro campaign, as Tottenham Hotspur bounced back from 0-3 down to book a place in the final on the away goals rule.

Ajax Amsterdam are enjoying a stunning revival in European football, after years of decline, and reached the final of the Europa League two years ago, only to lose to Manchester United, before eliminating both Real Madrid and Juventus from this season’s Champions League.

They were seconds away from reaching the Champions League final on Wednesday night, as they led 3-2 on aggregate, but a last-minute attack by Spurs ended with the London side finding a way to score a dramatic goal which ensured there will be an all-English final in Madrid on June 1.

For a team made up mainly of young players, featuring a 19-year-old captain Matthias de Ligt, and a 23-year-old goalkeeper, Andre Onana from Cameroon, which started their Champions League campaign back on July 25 last year, to still have been fighting so bravely 11 months later, was very impressive.

This Dutch team played in nine European cities — Athens, Munich, Lisbon, Madrid, Turin, London, Graz, Liege and Kiev — this season and caught the eyes of many with landmark victories against Real Madrid and Juventus, in the two giants’ backyards.

On Wednesday night, Ajax fielded a first XI of Onana (23), Noussair Mazraoui (21), de Lit (19), Daley Blind (29), Nicolas Tagliafico (26), Lasse Schone (32), Frenkie de Jong (21), Hakin Ziyeck (26), Donny van de Beek (23), Dusan Tadic (30) and Kasper Dolberg (21).

Joel Veltman (27), Daley Sinkgraven (23) and Lisandro Magallan (25) came in as the substitutes.

Three African payers, likely to feature at the 2019 AFCON finals next month, Onana and Mazraoui and Ziyeck of Morocco, featured in the first XI with the impressive Ziyeck scoring a wonder goal and dragging another effort against the upright.

While the world waved goodbye to this group of talented Ajax Amsterdam players, whose market value has sky-rocketed to £378.09 million, the impression they left on some will last a lifetime.

Zimbabwean football legend, Moses Chunga, was one of those who were blown away by this Dutch team.

The former Warriors captain earned his coaching badge in Holland where, one of his classmates, was the late former Nigerian skipper and coach, Steve Keshi.

He has always been a fierce advocate of the need to promote youthful players into the firing line arguing that is the only way they can earn experience.

And, watching this Ajax Amsterdam team beat a Real Madrid and Juventus side built on the foundations of experienced players, and coming so close to reaching the Champions League final, was a dream come true for Chunga.

“Ajax will not be in Madrid for the final, they will not lift the trophy, but they have already won something big, the love from millions of fans, because they played the game the way football should be played, no fear, free-flowing, quick passes, forward movement, style, everything one wants to watch,’’ said Chunga.

“They put their trust in some youngsters and trusted them to perform, gave them the freedom to play the way all the young players do it, like some street football, and it felt good, especially for some of us who have always argued that you can’t keep recycling old players.

“I have always argued that I was given a chance to play for a very powerful Dynamos when I was very young and if the coaches had not trusted me then, maybe my opportunity would have been lost, and we all saw Highlanders give Peter Ndlovu a chance when he was barely 17 because he was good.

“Today, they say every team in the Premier League should have, at least, five players under the age of 20 but do you ever see those players in action, of course, it’s a big no, show me a team that has played these so-called young players for just 10 games a season and lunch is on me for the whole  month.

“I tried to do it at Dynamos, bringing in a wave of young players during the Kidznet project but there was a rebellion with some people saying you can’t win anything with these boys yet they didn’t understand that, in two or three years, we would be pretty unbeatable if we stayed together.

“I tried the same with Harare City but, once again, there were many voices against the project but now I see the same teams bringing in players who have been playing since 2006 and you ask yourself, where is our game really going, are we seeing what others are doing?’’

Onana, the Ajax Amsterdam goalkeeper, was groomed at the academy owned by Samuel Etoó in Cameroon, before he moved to Barcelona in 2010 at the age of 13.

Five years later, he joined Ajax Amsterdam and, while his contract was recently extended to end in June 2022, reports suggest that his performances in the Champions League could see him moving back to Barcelona.

His market value has since shot up to £31.5 million.

Such is the impact of the Ajax Amsterdam’s system that three of the Spurs players on Wednesday – Toby Alderweireld, Christian Erikson and Jan Vertonghen – were all developed at the Dutch giants.