MADRID: Kings of Europe no more. Real Madrid’s Champions League reign is over.

More than 1,000 days since winning the first of three consecutive European titles, Real’s unprecedented era of dominance ended with a whimper when the Spanish giants were stunned 4-1 by Ajax at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday.

The humiliating loss meant Real were eliminated 5-3 on aggregate in the round of 16, leaving the club looking at a trophy-less season in their first campaign since mega-star Cristiano Ronaldo left for Juventus.

“We were not going to win the Champions League forever,” said Real defender Nacho Fernandez, who was sent off in the final minutes of the game. “Reigns eventually come to an end. Something like this was going to happen sooner or later.”

In the end, the club renowned for assembling its team with expensive ‘Galactico’ signings was undone by a club centered around a core of homegrown young talents.

Ajax, who are enjoying a resurgence thanks to young stars like Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt, needed less than 20 minutes to reverse a 2-1 deficit from the first leg, with Hakim Ziyech scoring in the seventh minute and David Neres in the 18th.

The outstanding Dusan Tadic, who set up both first-half goals, crowned his sensational display by hammering into the top corner in the 62nd minute.

Substitute Marco Asensio gave Madrid a glimmer of hope by striking back but it was quickly extinguished by a breathtaking free kick from Lasse Schone, condemning Real to a fourth consecutive home defeat in all competitions.

“We knew that it was possible to get a result here. We always believed that if we could play our own game we could cause them problems,” said Ajax captain de Ligt.

In Tuesday’s other game, Tottenham Hotspur beat hosts Borussia Dortmund 1-0 thanks to a clinical Harry Kane finish, to stroll into the quarter-finals for only the second time in their history with a 4-0 aggregate victory.

The humiliating defeat completed a miserable week for Real, who are now left with nothing to fight for this season after back-to-back defeats to Barcelona had knocked them out of the Copa del Rey and effectively ended their La Liga title hopes.

Coach Santiago Solari may yet cling to his job until the end of the season but surely stands no chance of remaining for the next campaign after overseeing an almighty collapse to an exciting yet largely inexperienced Ajax side.

“I think I have never felt this awful, I do not know how to explain it,” Real defender Dani Carvajal said. “This week everything has gone against us. Tonight we cannot look for excuses. We have to show our faces and not hide, our season has been a piece of shit.”

Ajax, who have won the trophy four times, most recently in 1995, reached the last eight of Europe’s top competition for the first time since 2003.

Thirteen-times winners Real, who have lifted the trophy in four of the last five years, and had reached at least the semi-finals for the last eight seasons, suffered their earliest elimination since 2010.

It was their joint heaviest ever home defeat in Europe, having also lost by three goals to CSKA Moscow in the group stage in December.

Real endured rotten fortune throughout the game, losing Lucas Vazquez and livewire Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior to injury in the first half.

The night could have gone very differently had Real defender Raphael Varane headed under the crossbar instead of against it in the fifth minute, moments before Ziyech opened the scoring after a breakaway that started with a run by Tadic through the right flank.

Ajax were bouncing as Neres baffled Carvajal with a pirouette in the corner and then Tadic did the same, spinning around Casemiro in midfield before teeing up the second. Neres rounded Real keeper Thibaut Courtois and chipped the ball home.

The Belgian made some more impressive saves throughout the game but was powerless to stop Tadic’s thunderbolt and was caught out by Schone’s free kick, which looked to be a cross but went straight in, deepening Real’s shame.

KANE FIRES SPURS IN DORTMUND

Kane and Hugo Lloris made sure there was no comeback for Dortmund.

Kane’s 49th-minute strike against the run of play after Lloris had made a series of outstanding saves silenced a fiery home crowd and leave Dortmund needing five goals after having lost 3-0 in London last month.

“It’s always difficult in these type of games, you don’t know whether to defend or attack,” said Kane, who singled out Lloris for praise. “They had a few moments. In that first half we needed everyone, defenders blocking it, Hugo saving it, that’s what Champions League is about — you need everybody.”

Moussa Sissoko played the ball into Kane’s path and the England striker, who missed the first leg with an ankle injury, picked his spot before dispatching an unstoppable effort past Roman Buerki in the Dortmund goal t become Spurs’ all-time leading scorer in Europe with 24 goals.

The Germans, who have seen their seven-point lead in the league evaporate in recent weeks and are also out of the German Cup, have never overturned a 3-0 first leg deficit in the competition.

“Now we can enjoy because it’s a big achievement, Lloris told reporters. “We want to keep on going, we don’t want this to end.”

For Tottenham, whose only other quarter-final appearance came in the 2010/11 season, it turned out to be an easier task than expected, with the Germans deep in a rut and far from their explosive early-season form.

With Dortmund needing to overturn a three-goal deficit, the hosts duly dominated the game in terms of possession and chances, offering the visitors no respite.

But Spurs soaked up everything Dortmund threw at them in a one-sided first half before Kane’s goal just after the break killed off the hosts’ spirited challenge.

“We have showed that we have the quality, we can build on the first-half performance, but we need to score goals,” said Dortmund captain Marco Reus.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019