Ajax fell to their fifth-straight away defeat against English Premier League opposition as Aston Villa ran out comfortable 4-0 winners to advance to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Conference League.Perhaps expecting an early onslaught from their team after a goalless first leg, the Aston Villa fans roared their team on in the opening exchanges, but the Dutch visitors looked organised and nullified the early threat as they settled into the game. The first opportunity arrived midway through the half when Leon Bailey found space in the area to move the ball onto his left foot, but he couldn’t get enough precision on the finish as it curled a yard wide of the post.Unai Emery leads Aston Villa to their first European knockout win since 1998. A reminder that Villa were 16th in the Premier League when Emery took over, they are now fourth and have beaten Ajax to reach the Europa Conference League quarter finals. 🇪🇸🟣#AVFC pic.twitter.com/V5afwQtEqZ— The Coaches’ Voice (@CoachesVoice) March 14, 2024 That chance sparked a period of pressure from Villa, and they found the opener shortly after when Ollie Watkins was left unmarked from Douglas Luiz’s corner and the Englishman looped a fine header into the far corner. Despite offering little in attack, Ajax almost snatched an equaliser just before halftime, but Matty Cash was on hand to divert Brian Brobbey’s goalbound effort away on the line.The break appeared to halt Villa’s dominance in the game as the visitors came out with a renewed belief and showed some attacking intent to get back into the tie. Despite that pressure, Ajax couldn’t capitalise and Bailey made it 2-0 just before the hour mark. The visitors were sloppy in possession in their own half and the ball was played into the Jamaican forward who created space on his weaker right foot before slipping it past Diant Ramaj with a composed finish.Already facing an uphill battle, it got even worse for Ajax minutes later when Sivert Mannsverk was shown a second yellow card for a shirt pull on Jhon Durán. The Colombian forward had been a handful after coming on for Watkins, and he finally got the goal his work-rate deserved as his shot had so much power it hit the underside of the bar and bounced back up onto the woodwork for a second time, but the goalline technology showed the ball crossed the line. Further gloss was applied to the scoreline with ten minutes to go when Moussa Diaby raced clear before lifting the ball high into the net to make it 4-0.On top of advancing to the quarter-finals, this is also a welcome victory for Unai Emery’s men after Aston Villa tasted defeat in four of their last five home games. At the same time, Ajax’s hopes of silverware now appear to be over after their dismal season.UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE – ROUND OF 16Second legThursday PAOK – Dinamo Zagreb 5-1 (3-0)/Baba 27, Sucic 34 og, Thomas 42, Koulierakis 73, ZIvkovic 88 – Hoxha 49/PAOK win 5-3 on aggregateFenerbahce – St.Gilloise 0-1 (0-0)/Rasmussen 68/Fenerbahce win 3-1 on aggregateFiorentina – Maccabi Haifa 1-1 (0-0)/Barak 59 – Khalaili 88/Fiorentina win 5-4 on aggregatePlzen – Servette 0-0Plzen win 3-1 on penaltiesLille – Sturm 1-1 (1-1)/Santos 43 – Wuthrich 45+2/Lille win 4-1 on aggregateMaccabi T.A. – Olympiakos 1-6 (0-3) AET/Zahavi 57 pen – Podence 10, Fortounis 36, El Kaabi 45+3, 65, Jovetic 93, El Arabi 103/Olympiakos. win 7-5 on aggregateAston Villa – Ajax 4-0 (1-0)/Watkins 25, Bailey 60, Duran 75, Diaby 81/Aston Villa win 4-0 on aggregateClub Brugge – Molde 3-0 (1-0)/Skov Olsen 45+2, 48, Skoras 71/Brugge win 4-2 on aggregate
