Napoli put one foot into UEFA Champions League last 16
The first ever meeting between Ajax and Napoli in any UEFA competition got off to a frantic start. The visitors missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring just a few minutes in when Stanislav Lobotka laid the ball off to Giacomo Raspadori unmarked at the edge of the box, but the in-form Italian could only drag his shot wide. Ajax made them pay minutes later, as Kenneth Taylor’s shot on target was inadvertently deflected in by Mohammed Kudus for his third goal of the Champions League campaign.
Falling behind certainly woke the Azzurri up though, as Raspadori equalised with a sublime diving header less than 10 minutes later. It was one-way traffic after this, and Luciano Spaletti’s side took a deserved lead around the half hour mark. Khvicha Kvaratshkelia’s whipped cross into the box was met by captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who towered about the Ajax defence to power his header in, and Napoli doubled their lead right on HT, via a swift counter-attack that was finished off with a clinical finish from Piotr ZieliÅ„ski.
Now facing a fourth winless game, Ajax came out in the second half with a huge task ahead of them, being two goals behind against a side unbeaten in 14 matches, but that task became a monumental challenge just two minutes into the half. The Ajax defenders and Remko Pasveer unnecessarily invited pressure onto themselves by playing around at the back, and the goalkeeper passed straight to a high-pressing André Zambo Anguissa, who laid the ball off to Raspadori to slot it in for his brace.
Napoli were rampant by now and added a fifth on the hour mark. A brilliant one-two between Kvaratshkelia and Raspadori released the Georgian through on goal, and he made no mistake curling it past Pasveer. Things only got worse for Ajax when captain Dušan Tadić was sent-off for a second bookable offence, and Giovanni Simeone made it 6-1 late on, to cap another astounding night against a European powerhouse.
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