SHOWS: AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (MAY 8, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1.

(SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) AJAX COACH, ERIK TEN HAG, SAYING: "Sometimes football is really beautiful, but sometimes football is also very cruel.

And it is this last cruel side which we are experiencing now.

It is really hard, but we have to deal with it.

We will have to get over it, which won't be easy, but we don't have a choice." 2.

(SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) AJAX COACH, ERIK TEN HAG, SAYING: "Obviously, we also made mistakes.

In the end, when you are leading 2-0, you're supposed to win this kind of game.

But we didn't.

All over I am so incredibly proud of these players, how they did this, how the team evolved, how individual players developed, it was incredibly beautiful to see how that happened." STORY: Ajax Amsterdam coach Erik ten Hag described their semi-final exit from the Champions League as "very cruel" after the Dutch side were undone by Lucas Moura's 96th minute strike for Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday (May 8).

"Sometimes football is really beautiful, but sometimes football is also very cruel.

And it is this last cruel side which we are experiencing now," said Ten Hag, whose young side appeared to be heading for a final showdown with Liverpool on June 1 in Madrid until Moura's last-gasp strike shattered their dreams. Having lost the first leg in London 1-0, Tottenham secured their place in the final thanks to a hat-trick from Moura which completed a 3-2 win on the night.

With the encounter ending 3-3 on aggregate, Spurs emerged triumphant on the away goals rule.

The result ended Ajax's long, and barely plausible, ride through three preliminary rounds, starting in July, to the last four of the competition.

During that incredible run, they had knocked out holders Real Madrid and Juventus and on Wednesday were seconds away from a place in the final -- until it all ended in heartache.