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 forward a d mi tt e d the “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 in 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.

Ziyech ( left, on that fateful night 18 months ago and now in the blue of Chelsea) was signed by Fr a n k L a m p a r d this summer in a £33million deal. Chelsea face Manchester United tomorrow, but Ziyech is 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.

“It is crazy what happened and hard to accept. We deserved to go to the final, but you don’t a lway 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, to never give up. And people, even in Holland, they say, ‘Now you can take revenge on Tottenham’.

“But, as a player, you always want to win, it doesn’t matter who it is.

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 now wants to win European titles with 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 while Morocco went to Russia.

“It’s my life, not his,” added Ziyech. “I am not afraid to have my opinion and always speak from my heart. I don’t care what people think about me.”