Bertrand Traoré scored twice as Ajax ran out comprehensive winners in a pulsating Europa League semi-final first leg against Lyon at the Amsterdam Arena.

The on-loan Chelsea forward opened the scoring before setting up the teenage striker Kasper Dolberg for a second as a youthful Ajax side blew away their opponents in the first half.

Ajax 4-1 Lyon: Europa League semi-final, first leg – as it happened Read more

Amin Younes added a third just after half-time and Traoré rounded off the scoring for the home side five minutes after Mathieu Valbuena had grabbed Lyon’s away goal.

The visiting side made the brighter start and would have been ahead after 10 minutes had Maxwel Cornet converted Lucas Tousart’s cross from close range, but André Onana made a fine save to deny the Lyon forward with his legs.

Nabil Fekir was wasteful with his first effort on 21 minutes and it proved costly when Ajax took the lead four minutes later. Hakim Ziyech’s inswinging free-kick was probably destined for the far corner but Traoré got the faintest of touches to head the ball in from eight yards.

The lead was doubled on 34 minutes when Dolberg darted between a static defence from Traoré’s header to lash home his fifth Europa League goal of the season.

Younes was denied a third on the stroke of half-time, after combining well with Davy Klaassen on the edge of the area, with the German’s shot well saved by Anthony Lopes.

Younes was not to be denied four minutes after the interval, though, converting Ziyech’s pass with a deflected shot that crept past Lopes and over the line.

Fekir kept Onana’s palms warm with a crisp left-foot effort on 52 minutes and Dolberg did the same with Lopes at the other end as Ajax pressed for a fourth.

Traoré tested Lopes once more before Lyon grabbed a goal on 66 minutes through Valbuena, who shot precisely past Onana from 15 yards after Lasse Schöne’s weak defensive header.

Lyon could smell blood and the substitute Rachid Ghezzal teed up Fekir but the France forward failed to convert when through on goal.

Traoré, a 21-year-old Burkina Faso international, made Lyon pay for their profligacy by converting another superb Ziyech cross on 71 minutes to restore Ajax’s three-goal lead.

Caution was thrown to the wind by Lyon, who were denied by an excellent double save by Onana from Ghezzal and Rafael, but the Ligue 1 side also left themselves open to the counterattack. Younes, Klaassen, Ziyech and the substitute Donny van de Beek tried to add to Ajax’s advantage in the closing stages but Lyon somehow held firm to retain a slim hope of overturning the deficit next Thursday.

“We played very well, if we keep playing like this we can beat anyone 4-1 or even more,” Onana told Ajax TV. “We worked together, we defended together, we attacked together.

The Lyon manager, Bruno Genesio, said: ‘We must believe. We must digest this defeat. It must be believed that the feat is still possible.”