Ajax return to Champions League after four years away
PARIS: Four-time European champions Ajax Amsterdam qualified for the Champions League group stage on Tuesday for the first time in four years, while AEK Athens and Young Boys Bern ended even longer absences.
Ajax went to Dynamo Kiev with a 3-1 lead and that was the final aggregate result after the Dutch team were held to a 0-0 draw despite dominating in an eventful second leg of their playoff.
Ajax, who last won European club football’s biggest prize in 1995, be joined in Thursday’s group stage draw by AEK, whose 1-1 draw with MOL Vidi of Hungary was enough for a 3-2 win on aggregate. AEK were last in the Champions League group stage 12 years ago.
Young Boys fans have waited 32 years since their team last played in Europe’s top competition. The Swiss team had lost in Champions League qualifying for the last three years but on Tuesday they beat Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 in the second leg for a 3-2 win on aggregate.
The losing teams will play in the Europa League group stage.
Dynamo piled on the pressure in the opening 10 minutes at the Olympic stadium in the Ukrainian capital as Benjamin Verbic forced a good save from Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana but the home side soon fizzled out as the visitors displayed superior skill.
The home team’s keeper Denys Boyko pulled off a string of superb stops after former Southampton player Dusan Tadic hit the post with a 14th-minute penalty and Ajax rattled the woodwork again shortly after the break as Hakim Ziyech’s free kick cannoned off the crossbar.
Boyko produced another fine save to deny Klaas Jan Huntelaar in the closing stages but Dynamo lacked any bite up front and never came close to overhauling the overall two-goal deficit.