Ethan Ampadu may not be as easily recognizable these days as when he had his glorious hair, but the Chelsea loanee put in a recognizably cool, calm, and composed performance at the heart of RB Leipzig’s defense as they kept a clean sheet and dominated proceedings at Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Wednesday night.
Ampadu, buried on the bench for practically the entire season, started in place of the injured Dayot Upamecano and hardly put a foot wrong in dealing with Spurs’ counter-attacks and late-game pressure, not to mention in keeping Leipzig’s possession ticking over and launching several line-breaking passes as well.
It was just the 2nd start and 7th appearance overall for the 19-year-old. He had barely over 180 minutes of game-time to his name before today. That he cramped up at the end of the full-90 tonight was hardly a surprise, and perhaps the only indication that he has not had any regular match time not just this season, but the season before back at Chelsea.