Substitute Tolu Arokodare give Ajax excellent starting position with goal and assist

Ajax beat FC Sion on Thursday evening. The Amsterdammers won 4-2 in the Swiss Alps. Next week, Ajax can officially qualify for the main draw of the Conference League when the return leg is played in Amsterdam.

Thursday evening's match in Switzerland was shown exclusively on KIJK. That was the plan, at least. For many viewers, the stream did not work or only started 15 minutes after kick-off.

By then, Ajax fans had already missed plenty. Julian Brandt thought he had an assist after six minutes, but Marcos Leonardo swung over the ball. Soon after, he did exactly the same from a cross from the right.

After ten minutes, Sion threatened for the first time. Winsley Boteli hit a shot from about 20 metres beyond the reach of Marc ter Stegen, but the ball came back off the post.

Ajax then created several chances through Brandt and Steven Berghuis to open the scoring, but could not take them. Sion did at the other end. Franck Surdez turned a low cut-back into the far corner to make it 1-0.

Following the break, Ajax restored order. Brandt brilliantly fired a loose ball into the top corner and, shortly after, Marcos Leonardo headed Ajax into a 2-1 lead from an Anton Gaaei cross.

With 20 minutes left, though, Sion levelled again. Jorthy Mokio barely made contact with his opponent, but the ball still went to the spot. VAR did not intervene, after which Ilyas Chouaref made it 2-2 from 12 yards.

Only two minutes later, substitute Tolu Arokodare put Ajax back in front. The Nigerian striker headed the ball past the goalkeeper from considerable distance to make it 2-3.

Late on, Ajax pulled away from Sion. Tolu played the ball in behind the defence to Davy Klaassen, who finished brilliantly cool one-on-one with the goalkeeper to set the final score at 2-4.