Sebastien Haller scored a Champions League double for Ajax last night but unfortunately for him, one of them was at the wrong end!
The 27-year-old left West Ham to join Ajax back in January 2021 for around £20 million (The Times).
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That was after failing to impress at the London Stadium following a £45 million move to the Hammers from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer of 2019 (BBC).
Haller has been a completely different man at Ajax though, especially in the Champions League.
The 27-year-old has bagged 42 goals and 15 assists in just 52 games so far (Transfermarkt). He has been absolutely on fire in the Champions League this season too and is currently the top scorer in the competition with 11 goals to his name.
He became the first player to score in his first seven Champions League appearances last night. But things didn’t all go to plan…
Haller notches strange Champions League double for Ajax
Ajax faced Benfica in the Champions League last night.
The Dutch side took the lead through a Dusan Tadic strike in the 18th minute.
Benfica equalised, however, after Haller found his own net.
The Ivory Coast international made amends for his error just three minutes later, and put Ajax 2-1 up in their Champions League tie against Benfica.
That was his 11th goal of the competition and it now puts him two goals ahead of Robert Lewandowski in the race to be the Champions League top scorer.
Benfica equalised in the end through a Roman Yaremchuk goal and the game ended at 2-2. So there is every chance that Ajax could progress through to the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier competition, giving Haller the chance to add to his tally.
What an unbelievable turnaround for Haller over the past year or so!
Haller has made an unbelievable impression with Ajax since leaving West Ham United last year.
It does seem like David Moyes shouldn’t have let him leave the London Stadium 13 months ago and certainly not without having a ready made replacement lined up.
Sure, the 27-year-old was not suited to the Hammers’ style of play nor was he a good fit for the intense nature of Premier League football.
Haller is clearly a top-class player though. His Champions League performances for Ajax this season prove that he has real quality.
It’s just such a real shame that there wasn’t more attempts made to get the best out of him at West Ham.
Haller is proving to everyone that he is one of the very best strikers in the game at the moment. How ironic that West Ham have been in desperate need of a top-class striker for the past 13 months!
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