Two brilliant assists and a nifty piece of skill by Ajax's Dusan Tadic at Santiago Bernabeu sparked massive trolling in the first 45 minutes of the Champions League Round of 16 tie. With the 2-1 defeat suffered at Amsterdam vivid in mind, the former Southampton star led his team to upset the odds by taking a two-goal lead in just 18 minutes into Tuesday night's encounter.
It was Moroccan international Hakim Ziyech who drew first blood for the visitors. The 25-year-old got on the end of an assist from Tadic and struck into the bottom-left corner inside the eighth minute.
Nonetheless, it was the second goal that has since been the talk of the town taking into regard the manner in which it was produced. Brimmed with confidence as a result of his involvement in the first goal, Tadic executed a brilliant roulette move to beat a host of Real Madrid players and, subsequently, slotted in a through ball for David Neres.
The Brazilian simply rounded Thibaut Courtois to grab his first-ever UEFA Champions League goal in the 18th.
Watch all the two goals below (geo-restrictions may apply):
Hakim Ziyech ignites the tie!
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 5, 2019
Goal of the season for Ziyech
Assist for Tadic
Wow! pic.twitter.com/CyZqDJw8Aj
Dusan Tadic's assist
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 5, 2019
David Neres's finish
Ajax 2-0 up on the night and 3-2 up on aggregate pic.twitter.com/W3hXN6O8WJ
Clearly, fans could not get enough of the underdogs running riot in the backyard of the Champions League's defending champions. And to add to the misery of Los Blancos, both Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius Jr. had to be substituted off after picking up respective injuries before the end of the first half.
As a reward for his resilience in the night, Tadic finally grabbed his first goal of the game in the 62nd minute. Substitute Marco Asensio pulled one back for the host in the 70th minute before Lasse Schone restored the three-goal deficit.
Dusan Tadic was sold by Southampton in the summer - now he's destroying Real Madrid - seems like they might have made a mistake
— Dipak (@dipaksiyani) March 5, 2019
It's hard to tell between Tadic and Modric who is the apparent best player in the world and who was playing for Southampton last season...#REAAJA pic.twitter.com/8P9EwrynJA
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) March 5, 2019
This and the Tadic skill, Ajax aren't just winning this game, they're humiliating the greatest team in Europe. In their backyard. Welcome back Ajax we've missed you https://t.co/OxvcYbEzWM
— Brad (@yaboybradavies) March 5, 2019
Tadic
— Bonavista (@ilFaraone94) March 5, 2019
Roulette is the most beautiful skill in football. Don't @ me pic.twitter.com/vc0tkL6mnQ
oh my.... wait for the Tadic skill check Real Madrid on the ropes pic.twitter.com/KQmlFzNggv
— Stu Holden (@stuholden) March 5, 2019
I can literally fap on that Tadic's 360 turn which almost ended Casemiro's whole career. What beautiful skills. Daaarrrnnnnn. #UCL #RMAAJX
— MH (@Hussaynnn) March 5, 2019
AMAZING assist by Dušan Tadić!!!
— Joga Bonito USA (@Jasoninho10) March 5, 2019
Wonderful skill to leave Casemiro in the dust with a roulette move, then he slipped in Neres for the second #Ajax goal!#RMAAJX #UCL pic.twitter.com/3UWGQXp7OP