The young Nigeria forward was a constant menace but Lille could not find the cutting edge as Ajax made away with a solid 2-0 victory on match day 5 of the UEFA Champions League.
Victor Osimhen and Lille have been dumped out of Europe after an early Hakim Ziyech goal and a Primes second half strike handed all three points at stake to the Dutch side on Wednesday night.
Even though the Super Eagles forward did not score, he proved to be a handful for the opposition with his pace, strength and guts troubling Ajax throughout.
The away side opened the scoring within two minutes; a sweeping, flamboyant move that featured at least half the team culminated in Tadic cutting a pass back to Ziyech to hammer an accurate low shot beyond Maignan.
However, after that early shock Lille settled – and they should have equalized from one of their many chances created.
But while Osimhen was a constant threat, Bamba was guilty of squandering a huge opportunity later in the half enabling Ajax to cling onto their slim lead.
Shortly after the break, Osimhen carved out another huge, huge chance for Lille. The former Sporting Charleroi strike charged onto Soumare’s lofted throughball before shrugging Martinez off. He then drew Onana off his line and finally cut the ball back to Ikone who managed to blaze his effort well over the bar from eight yards when he had an open net to aim at.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to punish that miss, as Ziyech and Primes combined to make the scoreboard read 2-0.
Ajax broke away with a sharp counter-attack that ended with Ziyech cutting inside and curling in a delightful cross that perfectly picked out Promes’ run to the back post, where the winger stretched to poke beyond Maignan in Lille goal.
Still Osimhen would not relent and his hardwork would have seen Lille half the deficit but for some wasteful finishing from his teammates.
One of such arrived in the 71st minute when Osimhen took down Zeki Celik’s cross beautifully before laying it off to Yazici who had a powerful effort from 18 yards blocked out for a throw-in.
It could have gotten worse quickly for Lille but VAR came to their rescue to cancel another Ziyech goal for handball.
The result sees Lille crash out of Europe after losing four of their five group matches, drawing the other one – against Chelsea.
