Rate it!

0 votes

The upset dominated a night on which fellow favourites Bayern Munich reached the group stage with a 2-0 win at Belenenses while Spanish clubs Atletico Madrid and Villarreal enjoyed crushing wins.

Ajax's elimination was all the more of a surprise as they had been leading 1-0 after the away leg two weeks ago.

They fell behind on the night to a Luka Modric penalty in the first half which eventually sent the tie into extra time.

Mario Mandzukic struck twice to give Dinamo a decisive 3-0 lead before Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored twice for Ajax.

After the match Ajax coach Henk Ten Cate's agent revealed that he will join Premier League club Chelsea as assistant manager to Avram Grant.

Bayern Munich again had Luca Toni to thank for their victory over Belenenses. The Italian striker, who had scored the only goal of the first leg, also opened the scoring in Portugal before Hamit Altintop added the second.

Atletico completed a 9-0 drubbing of Turkey's Erciyesspor, knocking in another five on Thursday, while Villarreal rounded off a 6-1 win over BATE of Belarus.

More entertaining was Helsingborg's recovery from a 5-3 away defeat by Dutch side Heerenveen two weeks ago with a 5-1 home win that put the Swedes through 8-6 on aggregate.

Galatasaray turned around a 3-2 defeat with a 5-1 rout of FC Sion, whose Swiss rivals Basel suffered no such fate in crushing Sarajevo 6-0 for an 8-1 aggregate win - the same margin as Spartak Moscow's victory over Sweden's Hacken over two legs.

Former European champions Red Star Belgrade are also through with a 2-0 aggregate win over Polish side Groclin.

Reuters