The best comeback since … the night before? Maybe with a year’s perspective on the matter we might be able to say it was even better than that. The previous evening had been a heady one for Champions League football. Liverpool had bounced back from 3-0 down in the first leg against the Barcelona of Lionel Messi. Their 4-0 win at Anfield was universally regarded as one of the greatest comebacks the tournament had seen. Tottenham Hotspur did their best to go one better a day later. They left their run till even later, having been a distant second best for the first three-quarters of their semi-final against Ajax. By that point they were 3-0 down on aggregate, having spent the previous 145 minutes chasing Frenkie de Jong, Donnie van de Beek and Hakim Zayech-shaped shadows. Then, with 55 minutes gone at the Amsterdam Arena and three goals required, Lucas Moura set about creating a legend. First, the Brazilian forward shot past Andre Onana to give Spurs a flicker of hope. Four minutes later he tenaciously bundled in a second from a goalmouth scramble, and the improbable now seemed possible. It took till the sixth minute of injury time for it to become a reality. A dramatic, heart-stopping reality, which floored most of the Ajax players, and even brought the Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino to tears – both on the field and in his <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/mauricio-pochettino-hails-tottenham-s-super-heroes-after-epic-champions-league-win-against-ajax-1.859249">post-match interview</a>. A long-ball made its way through the heart of the Ajax defence, and with Matthijs de Ligt for once just off the pace, Moura pounced to score the winner. It sealed a first Champions League final for Spurs, and fair to say they had gone about it the hard way. Their previous match, the quarter-final second leg against Manchester City, had been an all-time classic which <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/fernando-llorente-says-scoring-decisive-goal-against-manchester-city-one-of-the-best-moments-in-my-career-1.850501">required late VAR intervention to see them through</a>. They had had a delayed move to their new stadium, and had played an unexpected number of home matches at Wembley instead. And they had not made a new signing in ages. Moura had, in fact, been their last signing, three transfer windows earlier. The Brazilian had moved to London from Paris Saint-Germain, who had sold him to make space for Neymar – who was signed to help deliver Champions League success for the French side. Coincidentally, the manager at PSG who had sold Moura was Unai Emery, who was by now cutting an underwhelming presence in the technical area of Spurs’ biggest rivals, Arsenal. For all his heroics in the Netherlands, Moura would subsequently lose his starting berth for the final. Pochettino took a risk instead on the fitness of Harry Kane, who had not been seen for weeks, and <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/champions-league-final-mohamed-salah-and-divock-origi-fire-liverpool-to-sixth-european-cup-victory-1.869052">Spurs lost out 2-0</a>. But at least that night in Amsterdam means Moura will likely remain a Spurs hero for good.