maarten stekelenburg admits afc ajax faced a "very difficult" mission from the off in group g but hopes the lessons learned will benefit a young side now aiming for the uefa europa league.
for maarten stekelenburg, afc ajax's uefa champions league ambitions dimmed the moment they were placed in the same group as ac milan and real madrid cf. but if things have turned out largely as anticipated by the dutch international goalkeeper, he hopes they can at least claim the consolation of a uefa europa league berth when they complete their group g programme at milan on wednesday.
"when you draw real madrid, milan and auxerre, you know it will be very difficult," said stekelenburg. "of course you focus mostly on third place, for the europa league, and you hope for what everybody thinks would be an upset. it was possible for a long time. we have to forget the first match because at madrid we weren't ourselves and deservedly lost. but then milan came to visit and we took a good point and after that we won against auxerre, so we were in good shape."
unfortunately for stekelenburg and co, the picture soon changed with an "unnecessary" defeat at aj auxerre, followed by the 4-0 home loss to madrid on matchday 5 in which he and his team-mates were "outclassed". he added: "then it looked completely different. the second round of the champions league won't be possible, but the europa league is the highest thing we can achieve at the moment, so we'll go for that."
to hold on to third place, ajax – a point ahead of auxerre – need only better or match the french side's result in madrid. "i don't expect auxerre to win in madrid, but you never know, so actually we need to try to get a good result against milan," explained stekelenburg, who hopes ajax can apply the lessons learned in september's 1-1 home draw with the rossoneri.
"if you go back to the match here at the arena, we started well and were actually trying to put them under pressure. that comes with risks, because you can't forget that milan have fantastic players and they can outplay you or you can suffer on a counterattack. we got to 1-0 and you wonder 'should we go on or should we drop back? should we first take more control?' at a certain point, there was a mistake when we tried to play offside, which completely failed and which got punished almost immediately. we hope we've learned from that for the return match."
the goalkeeper believes that the entire campaign has provided an important learning curve for a club competing in the uefa champions league for the first time since 2005/06. "you know that the champions league is the highest thing. the level is much higher than the dutch league and mistakes will be punished immediately, so you have to be even more focused and try to give away even less.
"it's just a learning curve for the young kids," he added. "we have a very young team, with many players in their early 20s. i'm only 28 and for a goalkeeper that's quite young, but i'm already one of the oldest on the pitch. i experienced it myself when i first came to ajax – i also played a lot of champions league games and that makes you stronger. it's a good way of learning for the boys."
two fine finishes from outside the box helped ajax earn the win they needed to secure third spot and uefa europa league football.
second-half goals by demy de zeeuw and toby alderweireld ensured afc ajax bowed out of the uefa champions league in style with a win that booked their place in the uefa europa league.
ajax were worthy winners against a team already through to the knockout stages, putting on a fine attacking display that will have pleased caretaker coach frank de boer. the goals were particularly easy on the eye, alderweireld's 66th-minute thunderbolt, coming nine minutes after de zeeuw's opener, the pick of them.
beforehand de boer had vowed to help ajax "rediscover the joy of playing" and their early forays forward suggested the visitors were relishing this trip. miralem sulejmani played luis suárez in with a perfect through ball in the second minute, the uruguayan international driving goalwards from ten metres to force a fine save from marco amelia.
the goalkeeper had to be equal to sulejmani's effort soon afterwards as the hosts were pinned back in their half, while mario yepes and daniele bonera made vital blocks on sulejmani and christian eriksen.
the impressive eriksen came even closer midway through the half, working space for a curling shot from the edge of the box which amelia acrobatically tipped over the bar. milan were largely subdued, with just ronaldinho's 37th-minute header, straight at maarten stekelenburg, to show for their first-half efforts. ajax did have alderweireld to thank shortly before the interval, however, when he cleared robinho's low centre following a clever pass with the outside of his boot from andrea pirlo.
however, ajax were on top and their pressure eventually told when suárez picked out de jong in the area, and after his shot was blocked, de zeeuw fired in low from 18 metres. though thiago silva came close with a header, ajax deservedly doubled their lead in spectacular fashion when alderweireld rifled in an unstoppable shot from 25 metres. again suárez was the instigator, cutting inside two defenders before rolling the ball back for the centre-back to find the top corner.
substitute zlatan ibrahimović could have pulled a goal back two minutes later, tricking his way past alderweireld before forcing stekelenburg into a block with his legs, and the former ajax striker fired a bicycle kick over in the last minute. but the night belonged to the visitors.
1. real madrid cf...6...5...1...0...15...2...13...16 2. ac milan...6...2...2...2...7...7...0...8 3. afc ajax...6...2...1...3...6...10...-4...7 4. aj auxerre...6...1...0...5...3...12...-9...3
yardimci hakemler: henrik sønderby (den), niels hoeg (den)
4. hakem: nicolai vollquartz (den)
çizgi hakemleri: michael svendsen (den), thomas vejlgaard (den)
milan: marco amelia (gk), clarence seedorf, mathieu flamini (dk. 26 kevin-prince boateng), andrea pirlo, massimo ambrosini (c) (dk. 63 zlatan ıbrahimović), daniele bonera, thiago silva, robinho (dk. 76 alexander merkel), mario yepes, luca antonini, ronaldinho
yedekler: flavio roma (gk), rodney strasser, sokratis papastathopoulos, ıgnazio abate
teknik direktör: massimiliano allegri (ıta)
ajax: maarten stekelenburg (gk), gregory van der wiel, toby alderweireld, jan vertonghen, eyong enoh, miralem sulejmani, christian eriksen, siem de jong (dk. 84 mounir el hamdaoui), urby emanuelson, luis suárez (c) (dk. 90+2 teemu tainio), demy de zeeuw (dk. 82 rasmus lindgren)
yedekler: jeroen verhoeven (gk), vurnon anita, andré ooijer, oleguer
