Rayane Bounida made his first start in the Champions League this Tuesday, despite Ajax’s defeat to Benfica (0-2). At just 19 years old, the young Moroccan-born attacking midfielder was one of the few to stand out for the Dutch side, with several dangerous actions and a performance that left an impression.<\/p>\n
After the match, Bounida displayed a mix of frustration and pride:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never want to lose, especially for a first match as a starter. But I\u2019m happy to have been able to play and show my qualities. If it had been perfect, I would have scored three.\u201d<\/p>\n
The player even hopes he has secured his place in the starting eleven:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw me, right? I think so. It\u2019s a childhood dream. Tonight, I\u2019m going to sleep pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Particularly inspired with his left foot despite being right-footed, Bounida surprised:<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople tell me my left is better? I\u2019ll take that! Because I\u2019m right-footed by nature. Since I was little, I\u2019ve been trying to play with both feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This evening will remain special for him:<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave a jersey to a friend who came from Belgium. And the other will go to my father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the defeat, Bounida left the impression of a player ready to make his mark at the highest level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rayane Bounida made his first start in the Champions League this Tuesday, despite Ajax’s defeat to Benfica (0-2). At just 19 years old, the young Moroccan-born attacking midfielder was one of the few to stand out for the Dutch side, with several dangerous actions and a performance that left an impression. After the match, Bounida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1042],"tags":[1372],"class_list":{"0":"post-332677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uefa-champions-league","8":"tag-champions-league"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332679,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332677\/revisions\/332679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}