Villarreal manager Marcelino seemed to signal that the team's priorities lie with the domestic league, making seven changes from last weekend's 2-0 loss at Real Betis. Former Newcastle striker Ayoze Perez led the line against Ajax, with Nicolas Pepe and Tani Oluwaseyi coming from the wings, while even goalkeeper Luiz Junior was demoted to the bench ahead of Saturday's meeting with Real Madrid.
Ajax interim manager Fred Grim, meanwhile, made changes of his own with Aaron Bouwman and the recovered Youri Baas forming the defensive heart, while Jorthy Mokio was given the nod over fellow youngster Sean Steur in midfield.
Despite having the ball far less in the opening stages, Marcelino's countering Yellow Submarine were the biggest attacking threat, with shots from Tani Oluwaseyi, Alberto Moleiro and Thomas Partey testing Ajax stopper Vitezslav Jaros before the half-hour mark, with the latter forcing an excellent save out of the Czech.
Ajax, four-time Europa Cup I/UEFA Champions League winners, were nowhere to be found in the opening 30 minutes, with only right-back Anton Gaaei recording a low-quality attempt at Arnau Tenas' goal.
Left-back Owen Wijndal was the second Ajacied to take a shot at Tenas, who strongly parried the defender's effort in the 34th minute.
It took Villarreal four minutes to break the deadlock in the second half: Tani Oluwaseyi was launched by a deep pass that had youngster Aaron Bouwman beat, giving the Canadian winger a free chance to shoot at goal and bury the ball in Jaros' left corner.
The match was temporarily suspended after a medical emergency involving a steward, who was stretchered away and is in stable condition, according to reports.
Ajax got back alongside Villarreal out of nowhere when Oscar Gloukh's inswinging free-kick flew past everyone, including a scrambling Arnau Ternas.
Gloukh got Ajax's best shot at giving them their first lead of the evening when Anton Gaaei put the midfielder in a one-on-one with Ternas. Gloukh got past the goalkeeper, but lost control of the ball before being able to place the ball in an empty net.
After 89 minutes played, want-away winger Oliver Edvardsen became the hero of Amsterdam when the Norwegian calmly slotted the ball into Ternas' bottom corner, bringing Ajax on the cusp of their second UEFA Champions League win of the season.
Villarreal got a handful of small chances in the seven minutes of extra time, but couldn't prevent Ajax from winning a crucial away game in a half-filled La Ceramica. With their win, Ajax get to six points and are now within two points of the crucial 24th spot.
Villarreal, meanwhile, remain winless in Europe ahead of their final League Phase game against Bayer Leverkusen. Ajax close out their League Phase with a home game against Olympiakos on Wednesday, January 28th.
Check out all the match statistics on Flashscore
