Real Madrid have not played a competitive match yet this season. Ajax have played four and won all four.
That is the tie in one sentence.
On Wednesday, at Ajax’s training complex in front of a shade over two thousand people, Pau Quesada’s side begin their 2026/27 campaign with a place in the Champions League at stake, against opponents who have been up and running for three weeks.
What is at stake
The winners join the eighteen-team league phase. The losers drop into the second qualifying round of the Women’s Europa Cup.
Real Madrid finished second in Liga F last season, behind Barcelona. This is the tie they cannot afford to lose.
Ten out, eight in
Madrid have rebuilt over the summer, and not gently.
Misa Rodríguez left for Arsenal. Caroline Weir, the club’s all-time leading scorer, joined OL Lyonnes. Teresa Abelleira, Rocío Gálvez, Naomie Feller (PSG), Hanna Bennison (Eintracht Frankfurt), Sheila García (Inter), Alba Redondo (Juventus) and Antônia (Palmeiras) all moved on, as did Yasmim Ribeiro.
In came Elisa Senß from Frankfurt, Andreia Jacinto from Real Sociedad, Sweden’s Felicia Schröder from Häcken and two Dutch internationals from Wolfsburg: Lineth Beerensteyn and Janou Levels. Three players were promoted from the reserves.
The squad list tells you who is missing
Madrid have registered twenty-five players with UEFA: two goalkeepers, eight defenders, seven midfielders and eight forwards. Two things stand out.
Signe Bruun is not on it. The Denmark forward has been dealing with recurring headaches since last season, when they kept her out for more than three months.
There are only two goalkeepers on the published list, Merle Frohms and Laia López. With Misa Rodríguez at Arsenal, they are the only two currently named in the UEFA squad.
Athenea del Castillo is on the list, wearing number 10. She will not be in Amsterdam: she fractured her right collarbone on 1 August in the first pre-season friendly, against Madrid CFF, and was operated on two days later. The club has given no timeline.
And the treatment room is busy
As of 18 August, Madrid also had María Méndez (ankle), Maëlle Lakrar (shin), Sara Holmgaard (discomfort), Noe Llamas (shoulder sprain) and Beerensteyn (muscular) being managed.
All are registered, so Quesada has kept his options open. But four of those five are defenders, and Madrid arrive at their first competitive match of the season with a back four still unsettled.
Five more will miss the second leg
Irune Dorado, Laia López, Noemí Bejarano, Paula Comendador and Silvia Cristóbal have been called up by Spain for the Under-20 World Cup in Poland. The squad reports on Thursday 27 August — the day after the first leg.
They can play in Amsterdam. They are not expected at the Alfredo Di Stéfano on 2 September.
López is the pointed one. She is one of only two registered goalkeepers, and she leaves between the legs.
Pre-season: four wins in five
2-0 against Madrid CFF, 2-0 against Crystal Palace, 2-4 against Sevilla in Marbella, 1-2 against Tottenham at Pinatar Arena and 2-1 against Deportivo at the Ciudad Real Madrid.
The Sevilla result is the one to look at: four goals conceded by a defence breaking in Levels and missing Gálvez and Antônia.
The best of it came in Murcia. Hanson put Spurs ahead after five minutes, Linda Caicedo threaded the pass for Schröder to equalise on 22, and three minutes later Caicedo herself picked up a loose ball in the box and finished with her left foot.
The Ajax side waiting for them
Not the one that finished second in the Eredivisie.
Ajax lost their top scorer (Danique Tolhoek), their player of the season (Jonna van de Velde), their first-choice goalkeeper (Regina van Eijk), a key ball-winner (Danique Noordman) and defender Renee van Asten, who joined Barcelona at nineteen.
Anouk Bruil rebuilt with experience: Katja Snoeijs from Everton, Nadine Noordam back from Brighton, goalkeeper Femke Liefting on loan from Chelsea, defenders Anna Knol, Sophie te Brake and Sari Kees, and midfielder Kealyn Thomas.
Six of them made their competitive debuts in the first European tie: Snoeijs, Liefting, Knol, Te Brake, Thomas and Kees. Noordam did not — she had already played 105 games for Ajax before leaving.
And they have won the lot: 2-0 against Brøndby and 2-1 against Rangers to come through the second qualifying round, then 0-1 at Utrecht and 1-0 at home to PEC Zwolle to open the Eredivisie.
Four matches, four wins, one goal conceded, and four different scorers: Snoeijs, Van Koppen, Noordam and Spitse.
No history at all
Ajax and Real Madrid have never met in a competitive fixture. No precedent, no revenge, no history.
What there is, instead, is a set of homecomings. Lotte Keukelaar came through the Ajax academy and knows De Toekomst. Beerensteyn and Levels, both Netherlands internationals, return to play in their own country in white.
Where it could turn
The ground. De Toekomst is Ajax’s training complex, holding a little over two thousand. Small crowd, training-ground surroundings, and opponents who play there every week.
Sharpness. Ajax are up to speed; Madrid are not. The opening twenty minutes will show whether that is a cliché or a problem.
Van Koppen and Snoeijs. The winger and the striker scored the two goals that knocked out Brøndby. One drives and crosses; the other lives in the box.
Set pieces. Sherida Spitse takes them, and settled the previous round with a penalty in stoppage time.
The week in between. Madrid open Liga F on Sunday 30 August at 21:00 at the Alfredo Di Stéfano — against Atlético, in a derby, on the same pitch where they host the second leg three days later.
Ajax play nothing. Their next league match is on 6 September, four days after the return. The rhythm advantage they hold now becomes a rest advantage exactly when Madrid have a derby to get through.
The referee
Italy’s Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi, the first woman to referee a men’s Serie A match, takes charge, assisted by Stefania Signorelli (Italy) and Emily Carney (England), with Martina Molinaro as fourth official.
A Danish team led by Frida Klarlund has the second leg in Madrid.
Match details
The first leg kicks off at 19:30 CEST on Wednesday 26 August at De Toekomst, in Duivendrecht on the edge of Amsterdam. The return is on Wednesday 2 September at 20:00 CEST at the Alfredo Di Stéfano, with tickets already on sale.
Real Madrid announced on Tuesday that the match is on Realmadrid TV, their own channel. Ajax are also streaming it on their website, the club app and their YouTube channel, with coverage from 7.15pm CEST. Where to watch the whole round.
