Dnipro eliminate Ajax from Europa League after extra time

Ajax dropped out of the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday in Amsterdam despite a 2-1 extra time win over Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.

Ajax went out with a 2-2 aggregate result, losing on the away goal rule.

The 1-0 defeat in the first leg in Kiev last week forced the home team to score at least one goal to have a chance of going to the last eight. Ajax was the dominant team, but failed to create major chances in the first half.

Following Ricardo Kishna's header to Anwar El Ghazi the latter's fierce shot was saved by Dnipro goalkeeper Denys Boiko. On the other side Nikola Kalinic tested the qualities of Jasper Cillessen with two shots, with the Ajax goalie denying the Croatian striker a goal both times.

After a hard cross from the right by El Ghazi his teammate Kishna could have made a spectacular opening goal, but he missed the ball completely. With attempts by El Ghazi, Kishna and Arek Milik Ajax finished the first half on top, but the reigning Dutch champions couldn't hurt Dnipro much more.

In the second half 18-year-old midfielder Riechedly Bazoer was Ajax's most dangerous player. His first shot was blocked, but with his second attempt he was successful. Bazoer was able to touch the ball after a pass by Daley Sinkgraven, Egidio seemed to intercept, but under pressure of Bazoer the Brazilian lost the ball and the Dutchman profited by giving Ajax a 1-0 lead in the 60th minute.

Bazoer could even have scored a second goal. This time however, Dnipro goalkeeper Boiko saved his curled shot. Both teams didn't score in the remaining time of the regular 90 minutes and extra time was needed to decide on the winner of the contest.

Yevgen Konoplyanka gave the visitors their wanted goal in the 97th minute. The Dnipro captain dribbled inside from the left side and passed Cillessen with a curled shot in the far corner.

The goal made the mission for Ajax difficult, because they had to score two goals in the remaining 23 minutes of extra time. At first the visitors were closer to their second goal than Ajax was to theirs. Substitute Yevhen Seleznyov saw his shot from inside the penalty box go wide and a goal by Kalinic was disallowed for offside.

Three minutes from the end of extra time Ajax did come back into the match, when substitute Mike van der Hoorn scored from the rebound after Davy Klaassen's header hit the crossbar. The audience in Amsterdam stood up for the last time to cheer their team towards another goal and make it 3-1, but Ajax failed to score again.

With the elimination of Ajax the last Dutch team went out of Europe this season. Ukraine has two teams in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, with besides Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk also Dynamo Kyiv. The latter team beat Everton 5-2 on Thursday after the 2-1 defeat last week in England. Endi