De Boer- It’s a battle with Celtic for second place

Frank de Boer believes that Celtic and Ajax are battling for second place behind Fenerbahce to progress in the Europa League.

Norwegian champions Molde have largely been ignored since yesterday’s group stage draw in Monaco.

Ajax lost out to Rapid Vienna in the third qualifying round for the Champions League and struggled to a 1-0 aggregate win over Czech side Jablonec to reach the group stage.

After back-to-back Champions League campaigns falling into the lesser UEFA competition is a big blow to the prestige of Ajax with de Boer viewing the group as a head to head battle with Celtic.

“Realistically I think that Fenerbahce are the favourites when you look at the strength of their team,” the Ajax coach said.

“I expect that we will be close to them but it’s likely to be between Celtic and Ajax for second place, both clubs are at a similar level.

“Molde have improved a lot in recent times and did well to beat Standard Liege but they are a level down from the others in the group.

“To come out of the draw with Celtic and Fenerbahce sounds like a Champions League group, the same applies to the group with Anderlecht, AS Monaco and Tottenham.”

Celtic open their campaign with a trip to Amsterdam before hosting Fenerbahce and back to back matches with Molde.

Ajax have opened their league campaign with three straight wins, tomorrow they host Den Haag then travel to Twente the weekend before facing Celtic.