XtraTime Web Desk: Tottenham’s Cinderella season had nearly ticked past midnight when the English club completed a shocking comeback, delivering the second stunning result in the Champions League semifinal round in two days.
With stoppage time nearly complete, Lucas Moura fielded a desperate ball into the box and slid Tottenham’s third goal into the net for a hat trick and the decisive goal in a 3-2 win over Dutch side Ajax. It also turned the aggregate score in Tottenham’s favor, 3-3, with the crucial advantage in away goals.
Ajax started the game with a dazzling display of their talented “total football” scheme. Captain Matthijs de Ligt scored on a corner-kick header in the fifth minute. Hakim Ziyech scored again in the 35th minute.
Ajax was on a Cinderella run of its own, having defeated Real Madrid and Juventus to reach the semifinals.
But Tottenham’s second half was overwhelming: a 45-plus minute onslaught of offense that yielded chance after chance, and finally some goals. Moura’s first two scores, a whistler off a bump from Dele Alli and a putback after a mad scramble for a rebound in the 6-yard box, came three minutes apart.
Tottenham’s next attacks were even more fierce. What seemed like a last-gasp effort a header from Jan Vertonghen, clanked off the post, but the Spurs created one final try as stoppage time expired.
Alli flicked a ball to Moura, who barely got enough on his shot to beat the Ajax keeper to the right post. Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam fell silent. Tottenham bench players spilled on to the field.
The Spurs will sets a classic all Premier League affair in the final between Liverpool and Tottenham.