FORMER Saints star Dusan Tadic is tonight hoping to help Ajax to a spot in the Champions League final.

The Amsterdammers, including Tadic who left Saints for £10m last summer, lead 1-0 at the halfway stage thanks to Donny Van De Beek’s all-important away goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week.

Ajax coach Erik Ten Hag is confident his side will play to their strengths.

Ten Hag said: “We will have to win the match tomorrow and we play for that.

“We will play to our own strength with respect to the adversary. We will have to win. It’s a new game.”

Treble-chasing Ajax claimed the Dutch Cup on Sunday with a 4-0 victory over Willem II.

Meanwhile, former Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino has experience of a dramatic semi-final second-leg success.

The Argentinian was a member of the Newell’s Old Boys side that reached the Copa Libertadores final in 1992 after a thrilling second-leg last-four victory against Colombian side America de Cali.

After the first leg finished 1-1 in Argentina, Newell’s, managed by current Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa, completed the job in Colombia with a penalty shootout win to set up a final appearance with Sao Paulo.

But that does not tell even half of the story.

Pochettino, a 20-year-old making his way in the game, headed his side into an early lead against Cali before admitting to them ‘parking the bus’.

It looked like they were going to hold out until Cali earned a last-gasp leveller when Jorge Da Silva converted from the spot.

A goalless extra time meant it would be decided by penalties and that is when the real drama began, with the longest shootout in Copa Libertadores history.

Pochettino was again in the thick of the action as he missed the seventh penalty, with a horrible skied effort, but his goalkeeper Norberto Scoponi rescued him with two saves as Newell’s claimed an incredible 11-10 victory.