Amsterdam, March 20 (IANS) Dutch football side Ajax was knocked out at the last 16 stage of the Europa League competition despite a 2-1 extra-time win over Ukrainian team Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Ajax went out with a 2-2 aggregate result, losing on the away-goal rule, reports Xinhua.
The 0-1 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.
Ajax came close to scoring several times in the first half here on Thursday but took lead only in the 60th minute through 18-year-old midfielder Riechedly Bazoer.
Both teams failed to score in the remaining time of the regular 90 minutes and extra time was needed to decide on the winner of the contest.
Winger Yevgen Konoplyanka gave the visitors their much-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 Ajax’s mission more difficult, because they had to score two goals in the remaining 23 minutes of extra time.
Three minutes from the end of extra time Ajax did come back into the match, when substitute Mike van der Hoorn scored. The audience at the ground stood up for the last time to cheer their team towards another goal and make it 3-1, but Ajax failed to score again.