Toby Alderweireld on Tottenham Hotspur’s incredible Champions League semi-final win in 2019

Toby Alderweireld was up against his former club in 2019 (Image credit: PA)

European nights under the floodlights have a habit of hitting harder than your usual run-of-the-mill domestic encounter.

For former Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld, the 2019 Champions League semi-final against his old side Ajax certainly falls under that category.

Spurs arrived in Amsterdam on the back of a 1-0 defeat in the first leg and soon found themselves with a mountain to climb after shipping in another two goals before half-time.

Alderweireld on Spurs’ Ajax comeback

Lucas Moura would end up being Spurs' hero in Amsterdam (Image credit: Getty Images)

Goals from Donny van Beek and Matthijs de Ligt meant that Spurs were staring down the barrel going into the final quarter of the tie, and even Alderweireld doubted that this would be Tottenham’s night.

“We lost the first leg of the semi-final 1-0 at home, then were 2-0 down at half-time in Amsterdam,” he recalls to FourFourTwo.

“We needed to score three, and we weren’t playing well – I thought ‘I want to go home, this is not going to happen’.”

Tottenham came out of the half-time period needing an immediate response, with boss Mauricio Pochettino turning to striker Fernando Llorente as Spurs changed their approach, swapping intricate football for a more bruising style of play.

“Then Fernando Llorente came on and we played some power football with long balls, because we were a physically strong team,” says Alderweireld. This tactical shift put Spurs on the front foot and gave them a puncher’s chance of forcing a remarkable comeback.

“Lucas Moura scored the first, and the second,” Alderweireld adds. That left Spurs with 30 minutes to find a third, which would give them the advantage on away goals.

Time was almost up when Moura completed his hat-trick to vault Spurs into their first-ever Champions League final and complete one of the greatest comebacks in the competition’s history.

Alderweireld had begun his professional career at Ajax (Image credit: PA)

“When he got the third in the last minute, it was unbelievable,” the Belgian adds before admitting that the victory was somewhat bittersweet, given the nature of the opponents.

“To kill the dream of my former club was a strange feeling,” he admits. “They gave me my education and made me a pro, so I’ll always be grateful.

“But football is like that, and I was happy – I was going to a Champions League final.”

Alderweireld was speaking in association with BOYLE Sports 2 Goals Ahead

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team.

Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.