It was the five-year anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur’s most dramatic and magical night in Amsterdam for that Champions League semi-final win over Ajax this week,...
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It was the five-year anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur’s most dramatic and magical night in Amsterdam for that Champions League semi-final win over Ajax this week, so we’ve taken a look at the starting lineup for that game and detailed what those 11 players are doing now.
By far the greatest moment in Tottenham‘s recent history is that incredible run to the Champions League final in the 2018/19 season under Mauricio Pochettino.
Of course, that journey ultimately ended in defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the final. But, the memories of the staggering comeback against Ajax in the quarter-finals live long for Spurs fans around the world.
Trailing 1-0 after the first leg, and 2-0 down on the return leg, Tottenham ended up winning the tie on the away goals rule thanks to a stunning hattrick from Lucas Moura, including a 96th-minute winner on the night.
So, here’s where all the players in the starting XI are today.
Tottenham’s captain at the time, Hugo Lloris sadly suffered something of a fall from grace in the latter stages of his Spurs career. A disastrous end to last season saw Lloris replaced by Guglielmo Vicario upon Ange Postecoglou’s arrival at the club. The Frenchman trained behind the scenes until the turn of the year when he joined MLS side LA FC. He has now played 12 times for his new club.
Spurs had to wait a long time to replace Trippier at right-back, but thankfully Pedro Porro finally looks like he has filled that void. Tripper moved on to Atletico Madrid not long after the Champions League heartbreak, before returning to England to star for Newcastle United last season. He doesn’t play as much anymore, but he’s still a key figure in the Magpies’ squad.
Having spent another two years at Spurs after the Champions League final, Alderweireld eventually made the move to Qatar to join Al-Duhail. One year later, the Belgian joined his boyhood club, Antwerp, and scored a last-minute winner to secure them their first title in 66 years. He is still there now.
The dream centre-back pairing of Alderweireld and Vertonghen was broken up in 2020, with the latter joining Benfica. Now 37 years old, Vertonghen is still playing for his country, and now features for Anderlecht in the Belgian league, as a fierce rival to Alderweireld’s Antwerp.
One of the best and most underrated left-backs of the 2010s, Danny Rose sadly saw his Spurs career come to an unceremonious end when he had a falling out with Jose Mourinho. He would join Newcastle United on loan before being made to train with the youth team at Tottenham. Rose eventually joined Watford, but rarely featured. He is now without a club but has not retired yet.
Sadly, the main memory most fans have of Sissoko is that he gave away the penalty in the Champions League final, though, of course, that was an unfair decision. The Frenchman moved on to Watford in 2021, before joining Nantes a year later. He is now in his third season with the Ligue 1 side.
Injury-plagued the career of Tottenham’s midfield enforcer, and he left North London in March 2020 to join MLS side Montreal. He has stayed there ever since, racking up 123 appearances, though only five of those have come this season due to injury.
Of all the players in this list, Eriksen’s journey post-Amsterdam has probably been the most eventful, and not in a good way. The Danish international joined Inter Milan in 2020, but his career looked to be over when he suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during Euro 2020. Since recovering from that, Eriksen joined Brentford to revive his career and now plays for Manchester United.
Another player who has had a tough time of it since the Champions League final, Dele has sadly not played much football due to fitness and mental health struggles. He left Spurs in 2022 to join Everton, and after a brief spell on loan at Besiktas, Dele has been undergoing rehabilitation but is pushing to get back to his best in the near future.
The only player who is still at the club from this starting XI is now the captain of Ange Postecoglou’s side. Son remains a prolific and influential figure at the club and is currently the main source of goals for the Lilywhites since Harry Kane left the club last summer.
The hero of the night in Amsterdam, Moura remained at Spurs until the end of last season and even scored on the final day of the campaign with a brilliant solo effort against Leeds United. Unfortunately, Moura had slipped down the pecking order at Tottenham since the Champions League journey and was playing less and less. He now turns out for his boyhood club, Sao Paulo.
Fernando Llorente made it onto the field that fateful night in Amsterdam. The Spanish striker then went on to play for Napoli, Udinese, and Eibar before retiring in 2022.
Erik Lamela played the last ten minutes of the game that night, and since moved on to Sevilla as part of the deal to bring Bryan Gil to Spurs.
And finally, Ben Davies, who still remains with Tottenham, played the final ten minutes there, too. How much longer the Welshman stays with Spurs remains to be seen.
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