Ajax were one of the most entertaining and successful sides of the Champions League last season, beating Real Madrid and Juventus on their way to the semi‑finals, where only a ludicrous late comeback from Tottenham denied them a trip to Madrid and the chance to pip Liverpool to the trophy. On Tuesday their European campaign gets under way in the third qualifying round, against the Greek champions PAOK. This seems quite the humbling for a side good enough to reach the final four just a few months ago, but when it came to deciding at which stage they would enter this year’s competition their efforts last season counted for nothing. Harsh as this seems, it is not entirely without rational explanation: Uefa allocated places for this season’s European competitions based on the rankings as they stood a year ago, so that teams started their domestic campaigns last August knowing precisely how many places they were vying for and how they would be distributed. Thus the places for 2020-21 are already known. Thanks to Ajax’s efforts last season, whoever wins the Dutch league this year will enter the Champions League in the play-off round, just one two-legged victory from the all-important…