Ajax and AEK Athens conclude their Europa League group-stage campaigns when they do battle at the Johan Cruijff Arena in their final Group B fixture on Thursday night.
Both teams are unable to progress to the knockout rounds, but the prospect of finishing third and dropping down into the Europa Conference League is still up for grabs.
However, the two defeats that they have suffered during this run have both come in the Europa League group stage to Brighton & Hove Albion and Marseille, including a 4-3 away defeat to the latter on matchday five a fortnight ago in which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted a 93rd-minute winner from the penalty spot to complete his hat-trick.
Ajax currently sit rock bottom of Group B with just two points from their first five matches, and they must beat AEK Athens on Thursday to leapfrog the Greek outfit into third place and keep their European journey alive, as they endeavour to enter the Europa Conference League playoff round draw.
Since losing to Marseille, Ajax have won each of their last three Eredivisie matches against NEC, RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam, beating the latter 2-1 on home soil last weekend to climb up to fifth in the table and move to within nine points of the top four; they still sit a mammoth 21 points adrift of runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven, though.
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