Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea were handed tough groups after the draws for the group stages of the Champions League were drawn on 24 August, 2017.
Spurs are in a group along with defending champions Real Madrid, German giants Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia.
Chelsea have Atletico Madrid and AS Roma in theirs, with Qarabag completing their group.
According to Dutch media reports, Ajax Amsterdam have rejected a 50 million euro bid from AS Monaco for teenage striker Kasper Dolberg. The news of the bid comes shortly after the club agreed to sell Davinson Sanchez, their Player of the 2016/17 season, to Tottenham Hotspur for a club record £42m fee. After the Sanchez deal, Ajax director Marc Overmars mentioned that there would be no further sales.
The news of the bid is interesting because it also hints at Kylian Mbappe’s move to Paris Saint-Germain getting finalised. Ajax apparently do not wish to sell the 19 year old, who won the Johan Cryuff award for young talent of the year for 2016/17.
The Amsterdam outfit have roughly made 75 million euros by selling players this summer to English top flight clubs- Sanchez to Spurs, Davy Klaassen to Everton for 27 million and Jairo Riedewald to Crystal Palace for 9 million euros. Their acquisitions so far have totalled to a little over 6 million euros.
NEC Nijmegen will be playing in the Eerste Divisie next season after a 5-1 loss on aggregate to second tier outfit NAC Breda in their promotion relegation playoff.
Cyril Dessers, whose 84th minute strike had given NAC a 1-0 win in the first leg in Breda, was again the hero for the visitors in the return leg in Nijmegen, with his hat trick giving NAC a 4-1 win at Stadion de Goffert.
However Roda JC Kerkrade narrowly survived the drop, edging second division outfit MVV Maastricht 1-0 on aggregate. Daryl Werker’s 26th minute effort was all that separated the two sides over two legs of football (the first leg in Maastricht ended in a 0-0 draw)
The results mean that NEC will join Go Ahead Eagles in the Eerste Divisie next season. NAC Breda have earned promotion to the 2017/18 Eredivisie along with champions VVV-Venlo. Roda JC, who finished below NEC in the league (17th with 33 points, NEC 16th with 34) preserve their top flight status for another season.