Ajax advance in style but Chelsea made to sweat

Former European champions Ajax Amsterdam, Chelsea and FCSB all survived qualifying in lesser European competitions on Thursday.

Four-time champions Ajax cruised through in the second-tier Europa League.

Kian Fitz-Jim, Kenneth Taylor and Brian Brobbey scored as Ajax beat Jagiellonia from Poland, 3-0, to follow a comfortable victory in the first leg in Bialystok and advance 7-1 on aggregate.

Romanian club FCSB, who won the 1986 European Cup as Steaua Bucharest, squeaked through when Darius Olaru scored in added time to secure a 1-0 home victory over LASK from Austria and a 2-1 aggregate win.

In Istanbul, Ciro Immobile took his total to six goals in three games since moving to Turkey, scoring twice as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Besiktas thrashed Lugano from Switzerland 5-1 for an 8-4 aggregate win in the Europa League.

Chelsea, slumming in the third-tier Conference League and two goals up from the first leg against Servette, made eight changes from the team that crushed Wolves in the Premier League on Sunday.

When Christophe Nkunku converted a penalty after 17 minutes in Geneva the Londoners seemed in control.

Centre forward Jeremy Guillemenot fired low past goalie Filip Jorgensen before half time and leve Enzo Crivelli came off the bench to head a Servette second with 18 minutes to play.

Servette won 2-1, but Chelsea squeaked through 3-2 on aggregate.

“In the first half an hour we scored the goal and we had three or four more chances that if we were able to score, the game is finished, and then we conceded the goal,” said Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca. “In the end, we deserved it.

“This kind of game at the end, you have many things to lose and not many things to win.”

Last year’s beaten finalists Fiorentina survived two red cards to