A DUTCH OF REVENGE
Forget United! New Blues signing Ziyech has his heart set on avenging Ajax’s painful Champions League defeat to Tottenham last year
CHELSEA new boy Hakim Ziyech has been urged to seek “revenge” on Tottenham for his old club Ajax.
The Morocco for ward a d mi t t e d t h e “c r a z y ” away- goals defeat in the 2019 Champions League semi- final to Spurs was still “painful”.
The Dutch side won the first leg 1- 0 and went 2- 0 up on the night i n the return when Ziyech scored, before Lucas Moura netted a late hat- trick to send the north London side to the final on away goals.
Ziye ch ( l ef t , on t hat fateful night 18 months ago and now i n the blue of Chelsea) was signed by Fr a n k L a m p a r d t h i s summer in a £ 33million d e a l . C h e l s e a f a c e M a n c h e s t e r U n i t e d tomorrow, but Ziyech i s more keen on avenging the loss to Tottenham.
“What can I say about that? A child’s dream was stolen,” he said. “It is hard, it is painful.
“I t i s c r a z y w h a t happened and hard t o accept. We deserved to go to the final, but you don’t a l way s g e t w h a t y o u deserve. You have to take that as a lesson and I did.
“Now I know that the game is not over until the referee whistles.
“It helped me improve, t o ne ver giv e up. And people, even in Holland, they say, ‘ Now you can take revenge on Tottenham’.
“But, as a player, you always want t o win , i t doesn’t matter who it i s.
Even if it is Tottenham or whoever, you just want to win the game.”
Ziyech, 27, also lost the 2017 Europa League final to Manchester United and n o w w a n t s t o w i n E u r o p e a n t i t l e s w i t h Chelsea. And he vowed to bring to Stamford Bridge the same toughness which saw him clash with legend Marco van Basten.
Dutch assistant coach Van Basten branded Ziyech “stupid” when he opted to play for Morocco instead of Holland . But the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup whil e Morocco went to Russia.
“It’s my life, not his,” added Ziyech. “I am not afraid to h av e my o p i ni o n a nd always sp eak f r om my heart. I don’t care what people think about me.”