Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino called on the unlikely spirit of Toy Story hero Buzz Lightyear to inspire Spurs’ Champions League quest – only to run straight into a brilliant young Ajax side who deal in brutal reality, not Hollywood fantasy.
“To infinity and beyond,” announced Pochettino before Spurs’ first Champions League semi-final. But it is the Dutch league leaders who look like nothing is out of their reach as they left Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a crucial 1-0 advantage.
If Tottenham’s run to the last four has taught all observers one thing, it is that they must never be written off. This is a team that has advanced to this stage despite having to call on all their reserves to just get out of the group stage.
Pochettino’s dilemma is that his players have to claw back a deficit against Europe’s most exciting young team – who have almost emerged from nowhere to sweep brilliantly past holders Real Madrid and Italian champions Juventus, and are now in pole position to dismiss Spurs.
The hosts had just one shot on target on Tuesday, and only one of the previous 17 teams to lose the first leg at home in a Champions League semi-final have gone through.
In other words, it is not looking good.
Spurs can claim mitigating circumstances with the absence of the suspended Son Heung-min and the injured Harry Kane. But they must also face the truth that for all their endeavour they did not trouble Ajax and all the serious quality came from the visitors.
It was Frenkie de Jong who ran midfield, not Christian Eriksen. It was match-winner Donny van de Beek who made those surging, searching probing runs that made the difference, not Dele Alli.
And at the back Ajax have the boy who looks and plays like a man: 19-year-old captain Matthijs de Ligt.
This trio, indeed the whole Ajax team, is built in the old values and traditions of this great club – developing their own without lavish spending, selling and then re-investing, renewing.
It was Ajax’s most iconic figure, Johan Cruyff, who set the benchmark for their strategy when he said: “Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.”
This is a policy that will serve them well once more when De Jong heads to Barcelona this summer and those richer clubs come calling for De Ligt and Van de Beek.
