Both sides have the youngest squads in the competition with an average of age of just 23-years-old, and it seems that the expectation and pressure that comes with playing in Europe is weighing heavily down on them.
Ajax, a club widely heralded for their wonderful youth academy, which has seen the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf and more recently Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart come through the ranks, are not enjoying the same success as they once did in the halcyon days of the '90s. Back then they reached consecutive Champions League finals, beating AC Milan in 1995, before losing to Juventus on penalties the following year. A 2-1 defeat to Celtic on matchday three this season rooted Frank de Boer's men to the bottom of Group H. But perhaps it is telling that only one player in that starting XI - 33-year-old Christian Poulsen - was over the age of 24 and the average age of that side was just under 23.
Viktor Fischer and Lucas Andersen, both 19, are the shining new stars of the Dutch side but are not at the same standard as previous academy alumni, while the sales of young, accomplished playmaker Christian Eriksen to Tottenham and Belgium international defender Toby Alderweireld to Atletico Madrid in the summer, have done nothing to mitigate their Champions League woes.
