Real Madrid have not been drawn against the same Ajax that completed the 2025/26 season.
The name, the captain and the European pedigree remain. Much of the team’s spine does not.
Ajax finished second in the Dutch Eredivisie in Anouk Bruil’s first season as head coach, securing their place in Champions League qualifying. They ended the campaign without a trophy and lost the Eredivisie Cup final 3-0 to champions PSV despite enjoying more possession for long periods.
Second place was enough to return Ajax to Europe, but it fell short of the league title Bruil had identified as the team’s objective.
What followed was not a routine summer refresh. It was a reconstruction.
Five departures removed the old spine
Danique Tolhoek, Ajax’s most productive forward of recent seasons, joined Eintracht Frankfurt. The 21-year-old scored 33 Eredivisie goals and supplied 11 assists in 54 league appearances across three campaigns.
All 33 goals came from inside the penalty area. Over those three seasons, no Ajax player was involved in more league goals. Tolhoek averaged one goal every 103 minutes.
Jonna van de Velde, voted Ajax Women’s Player of the Year for 2025/26, moved to Hoffenheim after eight years at the club. A midfielder earlier in her career, she had spent much of last season as a central defender and was valued for her reliability in possession and defensive work.
First-choice goalkeeper Regina van Eijk left for Bayern Munich after 117 official appearances. She had been Ajax’s No. 1 since 2023 and occasionally wore the armband when Sherida Spitse was absent.
Midfielder Danique Noordman joined Juventus after becoming one of the team’s most dependable ball-winners. No Ajax player contested more individual duels or completed more successful tackles during her three league seasons in Amsterdam.
The fifth major departure was also the quickest to emerge.
Nineteen-year-old defender Renee van Asten signed for Barcelona after only one senior campaign. She started all 18 of her league appearances and completed 86 per cent of her passes. Ajax conceded an average of 0.4 goals per match with Van Asten in the team and 2.5 without her — a gap no single player explains on her own, but one that measures the stability she gave the defence.
Ajax therefore lost their principal goalscorer, their Player of the Year, their starting goalkeeper, a leading ball-winning midfielder and one of the Netherlands’ most promising young defenders in the same transfer window.
Six debutants and a more experienced attack
Ajax responded by adding experience at both ends of the pitch.
Katja Snoeijs arrived from Everton to replace Tolhoek at centre-forward. The 29-year-old — she turns 30 between the two legs — is a two-time Eredivisie top scorer, registered 39 goals in 49 official matches for PSV and has scored 12 times in 38 Netherlands appearances.
She needed only 13 minutes to score on her competitive Ajax debut.
Nadine Noordam returned from Brighton with 105 previous Ajax appearances and 18 goals behind her. The former captain has already regained an important role in midfield.
Goalkeeper Femke Liefting joined on loan from Chelsea, while defenders Anna Knol and Sophie te Brake arrived from FC Twente. Belgian defender Sari Kees and midfielder Kealyn Thomas were also added to the squad.
Six players made their official Ajax debuts during the opening European match against Brøndby: Snoeijs, Liefting, Knol, Te Brake, Thomas and Kees.
The number provides important context for their early performances. Ajax have already produced results, but Bruil is still building a team around players who have only just begun playing together.
What the European qualifiers revealed
Ajax opened their competitive season by beating Brøndby 2-0 in Glasgow.
Snoeijs scored after 13 minutes and Mirte van Koppen doubled the advantage eight minutes later with a diagonal finish from the edge of the area. Ajax then controlled the match, allowing Brøndby more possession after the break without conceding significant chances.
The final against Rangers was considerably less comfortable.
Clear opportunities were limited during the first half, although Ajax repeatedly found space on the right through Van Koppen. Their aerial presence became more influential after the interval.
Snoeijs headed a deep cross towards goal and Noordam converted the rebound from close range. Rangers equalised from a corner in the 87th minute, but substitute Joëlle Smits won a penalty almost immediately after the restart.
Captain Sherida Spitse converted it in stoppage time to secure a 2-1 victory.
The two matches highlighted Van Koppen’s direct running on the right, Snoeijs’s presence inside the penalty area and Ajax’s ability to threaten through crosses and set pieces. They also showed two different versions of the team: one capable of protecting an early lead and another forced to survive a much closer contest.
Ajax scored four goals through four different players and conceded only once.
The players Real Madrid must control
Spitse remains the team’s reference point. The captain delivers set pieces, takes responsibility in decisive moments and provides the experience required to guide a changing side.
Snoeijs is the penalty-area threat. Replacing Tolhoek’s production will not be simple, but her movement, physical presence and finishing give Ajax an established focal point.
Van Koppen provides speed and direct running from the right. The 20-year-old broke into the senior team last season and has begun the new campaign with a goal against Brøndby and an influential performance against Rangers.
Noordam connects the rebuilt team to Ajax’s recent history. Her return adds leadership and experience in midfield, while her goal in Glasgow demonstrated her ability to arrive inside the penalty area.
Four official matches before Madrid’s first
Ajax’s greatest immediate advantage may be competitive rhythm.
The Dutch side have already played twice in the Champions League. They will begin their domestic campaign away to Utrecht on 16 August and are scheduled to host PEC Zwolle on 22 August.
Unless that programme changes, Ajax will have completed four official matches before receiving Real Madrid on 26 August.
Madrid’s Liga F opener against Atlético is scheduled for Sunday 30 August. As the calendars stand, the first leg in the Netherlands will be Madrid’s first competitive match of the season.
That difference does not make Ajax favourites, but it does soften one consequence of the rebuild: the absence of settled partnerships. Every match gives their new goalkeeper, defence and attack another opportunity to develop the connections they did not have at the beginning of August.
Where the tie could be decided
The principal question surrounds Ajax’s rebuilt defensive unit.
Liefting is new in goal, several defenders have only just arrived and Van de Velde, Van Eijk and Van Asten are no longer available. Rangers did not create a large number of chances, but they still equalised from a corner in the 87th minute. Ajax’s new defence has not yet faced an attack of Real Madrid’s quality.
At the other end, Madrid must limit Van Koppen’s runs from the right and the supply of crosses towards Snoeijs. Conceding unnecessary fouls would also bring Spitse’s set-piece delivery into the contest.
Ajax are neither the settled European quarter-finalists of 2023/24 — when they went out to the very Chelsea side that has now drawn Real Sociedad — nor an inexperienced side that can be dismissed because of their summer departures.
They are more difficult to measure: a team being rebuilt around established internationals, returning leaders and emerging young players — and one that will have considerably more competitive football behind it when Real Madrid arrive.
The first leg will be played in the Netherlands on 26 August, with the return in Spain on 2 September. The winner will advance to the Women’s Champions League league phase.
