Madrid look to underline supremacy over Ajax

Real Madrid CF scored six goals without reply when they faced AFC Ajax in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage and will be looking for a similar show of strength when the teams reunite at Santiago Bernabéu.

• The Spanish side opened Group D with a 1-0 win at GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Ángel Di María scoring the only goal and Madrid holding on despite Marcelo's red card. The same night Ajax were held 0-0 by Olympique Lyonnais in Amsterdam.

Previous meetings
• Madrid launched their campaign 12 months ago with a 2-0 home win against Ajax, a Vurnon Anita own goal and Gonzalo Higuaín securing the points.

• The lineups in Madrid on 15 September 2010 were:
Madrid: Casillas, Carvalho, Pepe, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Alonso (L Diarra 83), Di María (León 80), Özil (Canales 88), Khedira, Ronaldo, Higuaín.
Ajax: Stekelenburg, Van der Wiel, Alderweireld, Anita, Ooijer, Enoh, De Jong, Emanuelson, De Zeeuw (Tainio 69), Sulejmani (Eriksen 85), El Hamdaoui.

• Two months later Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Madrid won 4-0 in Amsterdam despite having both Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos sent off in the closing stages. First-half goals from Karim Benzema and Álvaro Arbeloa helped ensure Madrid would finish top of their group for the third time in the last four editions.

Match background
• Before last season Ajax were the dominant force in encounters between the sides; indeed they still have four wins to Madrid's three, with the other match drawn.

• In the 1972/73 European Champion Clubs' Cup semi-final, Ajax won 2-1 at home to Madrid then triumphed 1-0 in Spain thanks to Gerrie Mühren's goal.

• Madrid's home record against teams from the Netherlands is W8 D1 L2; the visitors' away record against Spanish sides is W5 D2 L6.

• The Merengues ended a run of six successive last-16 eliminations when they made it through to last season's semi-finals, where they lost 3-1 on aggregate to FC Barcelona thanks largely to a 2-0 first-leg defeat at the Bernabéu. In their 15 participations to date they have never once failed to progress to the knockout rounds.

• Ajax, who are competing in the UEFA Champions League for the tenth time, followed their defeat in Madrid in last season's group stage with a 2-1 loss at AJ Auxerre and a 2-0 victory at AC Milan to finish third in the section.

Team ties
• During four years as a Barcelona player between 1999 and 2003, Frank de Boer faced Madrid nine times in the Liga and UEFA Champions League, winning two, losing two and drawing five.

• In the Dutchman's first year at Barcelona, José Mourinho was an assistant to coach Louis van Gaal.

• De Boer was part of the Ajax side that beat Madrid 1-0 in the group stage in September 1995, missing the 2-0 return victory at the Santiago Bernabéu through injury.

• Gregory van der Wiel was in the Netherlands team that lost 1-0 to Spain in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final in Johannesburg; Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso were on the winning side.

• Van der Wiel and André Ooijer played in the Dutch team that beat Kaká's Brazil 2-1 in last year's World Cup quarter-final in Port Elizabeth.

• Christian Eriksen appeared as a substitute in Denmark's UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying defeat by a Portugal side including Ricardo Carvalho, Pepe, Fábio Coentrão and Ronaldo in October 2010, the latter scoring the final goal in a 3-1 win.

• Nuri Şahin was on loan at Feyenoord from Borussia Dortmund in 2007/08, scoring six goals in 29 matches.

• Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld were in the Belgium side beaten 1-0 at home by a Germany team featuring Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira in the sides' opening UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in September 2010.

• Nuri was in the Turkey team which lost a World Cup qualifier 2-0 to Belgium in Brussels on 10 October 2009, Vertonghen playing for the home side.

• Hamit Altıntop scored in Turkey's 3-2 UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying victory against a Belgium side that included Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld in Istanbul on 7 September 2010.