Soccer-Ajax now have grander Champions League ambitions

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Ajax Amsterdam have achieved their goal in this season’s Champions League but now they are on the brink of a quarter-final place, they want to go further.

Coach Erik ten Hag said his side were capable of a higher level of play, even after winning all their group games and holding Benfica to a 2-2 draw in Lisbon in the first leg of their round of 16 tie.

They host the Portuguese club in the second leg at the Amsterdam Arena on Tuesday.

"We can improve our game on the ball. We did it properly in the first half against Benfica but after the break we let it drop. We can reach an even higher level. We have often shown that," Ten Hag told reporters on Monday.

"We will have to make much better choices on the ball, be more accurate and then we can dominate the game much better," he said.

Ajax had set themselves the goal of reaching the knockout phase of Europe's premier club competition which they have won four times, but not since 1995.

"If you just look at our goals, they have already been achieved. But I'm a sportsman and I want to get the most out of this competition," Ten Hag said.

"That's why this is a big challenge. We want to get as far as possible, but for that we have to beat Benfica first."

Ten Hag was coach when Ajax went all the way from the Champions League preliminary round to the semi-finals in 2019, losing dramatically in the last seconds of the tie to Tottenham Hotspur.

Ajax will be close to full strength against Benfica, missing only long-term injured goalkeepers Remko Pasveer and Maarten Stekelenburg and right back Sean Klaiber.

(Reporting by Mark Gleeson, editing by Ed Osmond)