Despite going down to ten-men before the hour mark Ajax recorded a simple 4-1 win over in-form AZ Alkmaar.
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AZ went to the Amsterdam Arena as the form team in the Eredivisie and were expected to give Frank de Boer’s side a real challenge. However, Ajax dominated proceedings from the start and after 14 minutes they had the lead as Nemanja Gudelj found Arkaduisz Milik with a perfect cross, and the Pole made no mistake with his finish.
Amin Younes missed a good chance to make it 2-0 soon after, but just before the half hour mark the young German picked out Davy Klaassen at the front post to stab the ball past Sergio Rochet.
AZ barely threatened Jasper Cillessen and on 53 minutes Klaassen capitalised on a mix-up in the visitors box to fire in his second, and it seemed Ajax were on course for a comfortable victory. However a minute later Anwar El Ghazi was adjudged to have tripped Ridgeciano Haps, and the winger was shown his second yellow card.
With the extra man AZ pushed for a way back into the game, and the in-form Vincent Janssen raced onto Markus Henriksen’s through ball to calmly slot past Jasper Cillessen to make it 3-1 on 64 minutes.
The away side then saw a lot of the ball in the Ajax half, but they failed to register another goal back, and in the final minutes a long ball over the top sent Milik through on goal, and the striker held off Ron Vlaar before firing in the home side’s 4th.
Ajax remain one point behind PSV, while AZ sit third.
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