AJAX have played in six European
Cup/UEFA Champions League finals,
winning four. Only Real Madrid (9),
AC Milan (7), Bayern Munich (5) and
Liverpool (5) have won more.
Their first triumph was at Wembley in 1971
when they beat Panathinaikos 2-0 thanks
to goals from Dick van Dijk and Arie Haan,
On their way to the final they beat Celtic
3-1 on aggregate in the quarter-final, Ajax
retained the trophy twelve months later in
Rotterdam when Johan Cruyff scored both
goals in a 2-0 win over Inter Milan, who
happened to beat Celtic in the semi-final
on penalties, In 1973 they became the first
club since the great Real Madrid side to win
the cup three years in a row when Johnny
Rep's fourth-minute header was enough to
beat Juventus in Belgrade.
Cruyff left that summer in a
world-record move to Barcelona
and Ajax's great European Cup
run ended at the first hurdle the
following season when they lost 2-1
on aggregate after extra-time to the
Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia.
Their last success was in the
newly-formed UEFA Champions League
in 1995 when substitute Patrick Kluivert's
shot six minutes from time beat AC Milan
1-0 in Vienna, The two sides were actually
drawn in the same group earlier in the
tournament with the Dutch side winning
both games 2-0,
Ajax's first European Cup final
defeat was in 1969 when a hat trick
from Pierino Prati helped AC Milan
to a 4-1 victory at the Bernabeu,
with Velibor Vasovic scoring for
Ajax from the penalty spot. In 1996
they were defeated on penalties
by Juventus in Rome after Fabrizio
AJAX IN FACTS
10 Celtic v Ajax
