Ajax Amsterdam vs Real Madrid Preview

It was a delight to see Ajax return to Europe’s biggest club competition this season and the Dutch side haven’t failed to impress so far.

They gave Bayern Munich a run for their money with draws home and away against the Germans and that helped them finish just 2 points behind them in the group stages.

While we can argue that Bayern wasn’t at their best when the season started, we have to look at the fact that Ajax have also not lost a competitive home game since 2017 and they will be looking to keep that record intact here.

Real Madrid didn’t have the best of starts to the season, so it was great for fans to see them reach the knockout stages of this Champions League.

Now that Los Merengues have picked up some form, they are in a better position to consider themselves favourites to retain the trophy they have won over the past three seasons.

Ajax have lost two of their last three games before this match, but they have both come away from home.

Fans will be expecting them to put up a big fight to keep hold of their long standing home unbeaten run here, however, that should not stop Real Madrid from scoring perhaps more than once.

Real Madrid are unbeaten in their last seven games, and they have won six, drawn three and lost three of their 12 meetings with Ajax.

Bookmakers have priced Real Madrid up as slight odds-on favourites to come out on top in this game.

Goal markets suggest we will see an exciting first leg as over 2.5 goals is currently trading strongly odds-on while Diaz Mariano, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema are all vying for favouritism in the first goal scored market.