Spurs suffered another home defeat at their new stadium to make it back to back 2 defeats at their new stadium.
Spurs looked lost and could barely stick together in the first half as the Ajax player were dominating possession and rarely giving any chances to Tottenham players.
With the victory, Ajax have an away goal advantage with them and are in a pole position to make it to the Champions league finals this season.
However, Manager Mauricio Pochettino does not feel all is over for his Tottenham side after the Lilywhites suffered another 1-0 defeat in a span of just a week in front of their home fan.
Tottenham lacked energy and Donny van de Beek’s goal in the 15th-minute goal proved enough as the Eredivisie walked away with an advantage for the second leg.
“In the first half we started, not in a good way,” Pochettino told BT Sport.
“I think my feeling is that they were more reactive, they showed more energy than us. It was difficult for us to play.
“Our lack of energy from the beginning in our approach made our game difficult. We conceded their goal and after 35 minutes we started to build the game.
“After the injury of Jan Vertonghen, Sissoko provided the team with good intensity and we stated to play better – in the way that we wanted to play from the beginning.
“In the second half we pushed them to struggle a little bit. It was an even game in the second half
“Still, we are alive, only 1-0 down and need to believe we can go there and beat them.”
“Of course, watching the game now, of course I can accept that it was a mistake to start in the shape that we used but there were not too many options to play with today,” he said, but identified mistakes made on Van de Beek’s goal that he felt had nothing to do with formations.
He added: “I think it was our lack of energy and our lack of aggression, a little bit sloppy.
“If you look at the Ajax goal, we were so sloppy conceding our goal. That is not a about four or five midfielders or two strikers. Our approach to the game wasn’t good.
“It’s my responsibility always because I am the manager but in the second half we kept our possibility for the second leg.
“We are alive, it’s a little bit of an advantage for Ajax but it is still open.”
“We are going to assess him in the next few days and we will see,” Pochettino said.
Spurs next travel to face AFC Bournemouth and will be keen to bring their top 4 finish chase on track having dropped 6 points in their last 3 matches in the league.
