Spartak Moscow defeat Ajax 3-0 to book quarter-final spot: UEFA Europa League
Spartak Moscow beat Ajax 3-0 in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League round of 16 fixture at the Luzhniki stadium on Thursday evening.
The result meant Spartak went through to the quarter-finals of the competition 4-0 on aggregate, after winning the first leg 1-0 last week. Manager Valery Karpin made several changes to the Spartak side that won the first leg. Welliton played as the lone
striker in a 4-5-1 formation for the hosts.
Frank De Boer made only one change to his Ajax team that lost 1-0 in the first leg, as goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jeroen-Verhoeven-c18375. Spartak applied the early pressure and came close to scoring in the fourth minute. Yevgeni Makeev made
a surging run in the box and his powerful shot was splendidly palmed away by Verhoeven.
Spartak continued to dominate and created several half chances but could not find the target. The hosts were eventually rewarded for their persistence, as they opened the scoring in the 21st minute. Skipper Alex caught http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jan-Vertonghen-c17814 in possession
and laid the ball to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dmitri-Kombarov-c11402, who calmly slotted his shot past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0 for the evening and 2-0 on aggregate.
Three minutes later the visitors came close to equalising, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Christian-Eriksen-c9074 made a beautiful run into the box before shooting just wide of the target. Spartak enjoyed 61 percent of the possession and doubled their tally for the evening on the half
hour mark. Kombarov snatched the ball from Gregory Van der Wiel and muscled his way into the box to find http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Welliton-c36773, and the Brazilian smashed his shot into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0.
The game looked all over for the visitors who were trailing 3-0 on aggregate and looked completely down and out. Ajax made a change at the half time break as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Daley-Blind-c9747 to add some firepower to the attack.
The hosts scored their third of the evening nine minutes into the second half. Alex smashed a powerful shot from a free-kick 30 yards out, which found the top corner of the net to make it 3-0 for the evening and 4-0 on aggregate. The game looked all over
for the visitors, who were searching for a consolation goal. Erikson and Araz Obzbiliz missed some good chances to score as the visitors disappointing evening continued.
Spartak cruised to a comfortable home win and sealed their place in the last eight of the tournament. The draws for the quarter-finals will be held on Friday, 18th March.
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