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Matthijs De Ligt Is The Youngest Ever Captain In A Champions League Semi-Final

Matthijs De Ligt Is The Youngest Ever Captain In A Champions League Semi-Final

It was another composed and solid defensive display for the 19-year old Dutchman...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Ajax centre-back Matthijs de Ligt has reached another key milestone in his budding career.

Having scored the goal that sent his side into the Ajax, at 19 years and 261 days, de Ligt skipper Ajax to a first leg victory away at Spurs - becoming the youngest player to captain a team in the semi-finals in the process.

He already broke Cesc Fabregas's Champions League knockout record back in February and now the 2018 Golden Boy winner has more reason to celebrate tonight.

The game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was Ajax's first Champions League semi-final appearance since 1997 against Juventus. Incredibly, de Ligt wasn't even born when that fixture took place.

BT Sport's trio of pundits Rio Ferdinand, Edgar Davids and Glenn Hoddle waxed lyrical about the Dutch defender the game and he lived up their compliments with another mature display beyond his years.

The all-important away goal for Ajax came 15 minutes into the game through midfielder Donny van de Beek, who finished off a scintillating team move that summed up with the Amsterdam club are all about.

David Neres fed the ball into Lasse Schone, who transferred the play onto Hakim Ziyech and the Moroccan slipped in Van de Beek with a wonderful pass.

The 22-year old was ice cool on-on-one; faking a shot before slotting home past Hugo Lloris. There was a suspicion of offside but VAR ruled that van de Beek was just level when consulted.

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Topics: Spurs, Football News, Matthijs de Ligt, Tottenham Hotspur, Football, Eredivisie, Ajax, Netherlands, Champions League