Champions League News: Ajax triumph over Dynamo Kiev; enter CL after 5 years
It were the Godenzonen that were able to thwart the Cops and qualify for the next stage of Champions League in the 2nd leg of the qualification process.
Though Ajax kept being troubled by Dynamo Kiev in the whole match, nevertheless the two goals they produced were enough to ~/Article/Edit/12185help them proceed to the next level.
After the 1-1 away draw for Ajax they won their home match 2-1; thanks to goals from Luis Suarez and Mounir El Hamdaoui.
This is the first side since 2005 that has been able to reach the group stages of Champions League and then succeed in them.
Though Andriy Shevchenko did score a late goal that was more than consolidation for the Ukrainian club, but in the end Kiev was kept at bay by Ajax till the end of the match.
Kiev started the match in offensive fashion and dominated in most of the first half. They were twice on the verge of drawing first blood but were unable to capitalize on their chances.
There were a number of tries by Groundhogs where they checked if the Ajax goal keeper was alert enough and the answer for them was, he was wide awake. Roman Eremenko tried to strike an early goal with a shot between the posts but the Ajax shot stopper made it look like no challenge as he stopped and picked up the ball one after another without trouble.
After the early moments of the game Kiev seemed ready to enter their name with a goal on the score line as their players switched flanks and made marvelous attacks form the wings.
Oleg Gusev was unstoppable when he crossed the ball from the wings and though Gusev failed in scoring a goal his efforts were valiant. Efforts from Stekelenburg are also commendable as are from Artem Milevskiy. They both tried to make combinations from midfield and the wings but were put to a halt after their move 3.
Andriy Yarmolenko was one of the major disappoiments in the match as he failed to score just metres away from the goal in the middle of the half. He received a good pass form Danilo Silva but he flunked away his opportunity. Credit however did go to the Ajax goalie as he did make an extraordinary effort to save his team the deficit.
All experts had predicted that Luis Suarez would star from Ajax and in the end they did get to keep their money as the Uruguay international came far too often of scoring the opener.
Suarez finally managed that in the 43rd minute as a free kick got deflected from a wall of defenders and the Ajax skipper Suarez received the ball and made no mistake in netting it.
After the goal, performance by Kiev deteriorated and the team did not trouble the Dutch defence much. Ajax on the other hand were on fire now and made spectacular moves one after another.
They nearly scored another goal on a free kick but it was saved by Kiev’s goal keeper, Maxim Koval with a superb dive. The free kick was taken by Suarez and no one was able to utilize or connect with the ball.
A stunner was produced in the 76th minute when Koval did not get a chance to stop what Mounir El Hamdaoui was about to do. Miralem Sulejmani was the man who assisted the Moroccan international with a cross that flew low from the left wing and El Hamdaoui brought it home with ease for Ajax.
Near to end, the Ukrainian club did realize that a defeat will not bode them well and therefore they woke up however the lone goal from Andriy Shevchenko was just simply not enough.
Ajax in the end certainly came out as the better and stronger team reliving the quote all is well that ends well. Even though Dynamo Kiev had their part of glory and domination in the match, but Kiev did not have enough goals therefore they must now look forward to the Europa League.
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