Three goals in the last twenty-five minutes helped Ajax to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Sparta Rotterdam.
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Before the game started there was an emotional tribute paid to the recently deceased mayor of Amsterdam Eberhard van der Laan, with flowers placed on his seat in the stadium and a loud applause from the crowd.
When the match got underway, Ajax, who once again started with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and David Neres in attack, struggled for momentum early on and Andre Onana had to be alert to prevent Loris Brogno the opening goal.
Both sides then traded chances, but five minutes before the break, Ajax found their opening goal in fortunate circumstances as Ryan Sanusi diverted Lasse Schone’s corner into his own net.
Sparta goalkeeper Roy Kortsmit kept his side in the game early in the second half with a string of saves, but he was finally beaten in the 64th minute through another own goal, this time netted by Sheral Floranus.
David Neres then raced onto an Hakim Ziyech through ball on 73 minutes before hammered his shot into the roof of the net to make it 3-0 and soon after Amin Younes sealed the comfortable win. It could have been a bigger margin before the end, but substitute Kasper Dolberg had a penalty saved by Kortsmit.
Ajax now moves up to second in the table, while Sparta are 17th.
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