Frank de Boer couldn’t hide his disappointment after another losing visit to Celtic Park.
The Ajax coach watched his side lose 2-1 to Celtic to complete an unhappy treble after losing twice to Martin O’Neill’s side during his time at Rangers.
Goals either side of the half-time interval from James Forrest and Beram Kayal gave the home side their first points of the campaign while the visiting supporters disgraced themselves by breaking seats and fighting with police and stewards.
After watching his side lose de Boer told uefa.com: “We had the better chances, but the best team does not always win. We dominated the game; [Christian] Poulsen hit the post for us, and [Thulani] Serero and [Kolbeinn] Sigthórsson had one-on-ones.
“Those were real opportunities and they have to be goals. But if we play like we did tonight in the next match on matchday four, then we certainly will beat them at [the Amsterdam] ArenA. I really believe that.
“I have mixed feelings about the result. Celtic didn’t create anything but scored twice. We dominated the game but only scored one goal. We should have equalised but right after that it was 2-0. I feel comfortable with the way we played.
“It will be hard [at home against Celtic] but I am confident. We have one point and if we win at home against Celtic, we’ll be one point ahead of them. It’ll be difficult but if we play like we did this evening, eight times out of ten the best team wins. I thought we were the best team tonight but didn’t score goals. We’ll have to do that at the Amsterdam ArenA.”
fair comment TBH
Fwank de Boor is a loser and a hurtin’ hun, and after the disgraceful sevconian like behaviour of the Ahyaks fans tonight, they shouldn’t be allowed to play in Amsterdam or anywhere else on the European stage for at least a couple of seasons.
We will be mastered by no orange bas…. We,ll keep the green flag flying high. Yeah they had three chances. We had at least as many. I’ll be putting money on us tae beat them in Amsterdam aswell. HH.
I thought they just smoked blaw and shagged prozzies in Amsterdam
I think Sam the Eagle’s comments smack of desperation. Must admit I feared the worst before tonight, but I left the Theatre of Dreams believing that this Ajax team were a pale imitation of the decent ones of not so long ago. Think we should attack their left back from the first whistle, in the ArenA, the more the game went on, the more Forrest found his mojo! H×2
Disgraceful behaviour by the Ajax fans tonight, but it remains to been seen if Ajax are punished for their fans behaviour. Very bad losers.
Hitting the post = ,missing the target – Celtic hit the net twice.
One on ones = still have to beat the keeper – Celtic beat yours twice.
2-1 The only stat that matters.
I thought ajax were not a bad team but we should have commons to unleash in two weeks , respect to mulgrew , 100% givin as always ,worthy captain ???? Hh bhoys !
I thought they were the better side, created the better chances…but football is about TAKING those chances and SCORING goals. One on ones mean nothing, the keeper has a job to do and saved them, the woodwork didn’t move the shot was wide. We rode our luck but then I feel we deserved some luck after the 2 previous games…3 points is where we should be.
I expect us to play better in the return, balance isn’t right up front that’s obvious, if we can sort out a better pairing or someone to lead the line on their own we will be better again. Also time to get Lustig fully fit. I’d like to see Rogic in midfield to do the Mulgrew role might mean we create more. Still think we will win in Barcelona as they will be through by then and we will face a shadow squad, real pity about losing that late late goal as we would be in a stronger position on the head to head but feel we will get 9-12 points.
this season we had 10minutes bad luck in milan one moment of madness against barca then we lost matthewscommons to injury before the game maybe lady luck will smile on us in amsterdam
Ajax were the better team. I would settle for a draw in Amsterdam and third place in group (to be honest).
Totally agree. We missed Commons and Pukki is well below what is required as a goal scorer. We have a good centre half now in Virgil and with Ambrose alongside him we look more solid than last season but Van Dyke is the only purchase we made this year that improves the squad. Brown is not a great loss. Our best European performances have come without him in the side. Neil Lennon and his back room staff do continue to punch above their weight so a big well done to them but we need strikers who can carry a greater goal threat, hold the ball up and bring players into the game. Diss appointed that Barcelona did not turn over AC Milan and our best chance of 3 points may be against AC Milan when they come calling next month when hopefully Commons and Co will be back.
Boys get real. We have no recognised goal scorer leading the attack. Lennon and co have done a fantastic job with limited resources but we needed a striker not Pukki. Good to see Kyal returning to some form, thought he was excellent last night. Sammy and Forrest are the only players who can carry a ball to the opposition with any threat. Points will be hard to come by because we can’t score. Great result as is any European win but whilst we will battle and fight for every ball we do need some one stronger than Stokes and Pukki to lead the line.
Must agree with all above. I was hoping pukki would grab last nights game and show us his mettle. But I have to say for me he was by far our most ineffectual player. I can barely remember anything he did. That said. Last night showed we can actually grind out a result even when not in charge of the game again. Look what Milan did to us. We did the exact same to Ajax. Roll on Amsterdam. HH.
Totally disagree, if ajax were better it was marginal and we negated that by scoring twice. I also disagree regards Broonie, but some supporters need a focal point for their negativity, so why not bame a player that wasn’t even playing.
If we had Broonie and Commons, and even Matthews who was in sparkling form before he was mugged in the spfl, we would have taken three or four off them.
Well done Lenny and the Bhoys for a fantastic result, and that’s all that matters to me.
If the Celtic support were to behave the way the ajax reportedly did last night and in the city centre the night before there would be a mob with burning torches all the way up the London Rd to CP and that would just be the Scottish laptop loyalists never mind the national press, it will be interesting to see how the Dutch thugs are treated, not only by the jaikies in the smsm, but by Uefa and the Dutch footballing authorities.
HH
Ffs bhoys, cut the team a bit of slack here.
Prior to this game I’d have chewed my right arm off for a win. And do you know what, we won the way a lot or the so called super teams win ” we won UGLY”
And I personally don’t have a problem with that because ask yourself ” how many times have we played magical and got pumped”?
Our defence was Imense apart from Izzy who seriously needs sorting out. In the midfield the much maligned Kayal played a blinder and Charlie has developed into a REAL class act. Sammy was equally as brilliant as he was frustrating. Forrest is getting his “HAPPY FEET” back. Up front, Where I agree with most is that playing two strikers just did not work. I’d like to see Pukki get a shot at lone striker with plenty of service because him and stokes are like two peas in a pod.
We are still in with a shout of qualification And in with a very good chance to qualify for the EL. What’s there not to be happy about. ( we could’ve been oot on oor erses)
Hail hail
And big Virgil was awarded MOTM. His performance with just about the best click we’ve between tow defenders Efe was outstanding.
You can have all the possesion in the worl d, but if you’re not doing it in the final third it means nothing.
I think Lenny got his tactics bang on from what was a difficult task considering the players out.
If we can get shot of those momentary lapse’ in concentration we seem to be susceptible to in the last quarter we would be all the better for it and would have seen us with a clean sheet last night.
It’s all about opinions, and reading through newsnow there are a lot of supporters of a really positive mind like myself, but there are many who take a more critical stance.
It’s all part of the game.
We won last night against decent European competition, the least we can join together and celebrate that.
HH
Jimbo I agree any win is a good win, it was a great result that puts us back in the mix and gives us something to build on for the next game. Thought wee Forrest showed nerves of steel and great composure to bury that penalty after the underhand delaying tactics by the Ajax players.
That said we could have done some things better, I am probably going to get slaughtered for saying this, but Lenny really needs to sort out the team’s passing and positional play. Time and time again we gifted them possession by giving the ball away cheaply with slack passes and hopeful balls over the top and when one of our players did have the ball there was no movement off it by the others to give him much option for the pass, they waited to see what he did instead of getting themselves into a position to make themselves available for the pass. The player was then closed down and inevitably lost possession again.
This Celtic team are better than what they showed last night. They have the talent and ability to cut teams open if they could just manage to keep it tight, play the simple pass instead of the hopeful one and build the play with their movement off the ball by getting closer to their team mate and giving him more passing options instead of hoping he finds them.
As I said I will probably be slaughtered for saying this after a CL win but imagine if we could get to grips with these things and stop putting ourselves under such unnecessary pressure, it could be the difference between getting that result in Milan and holding out against the quality of Barca. Let’s enjoy the European adventure wherever it takes us but we should always be looking to improve because we are too big a club with too proud a history to accept or be viewed as just being there to make up the numbers.
Hail Hail.
Andybhoy, you’ve hit the nail on the head. We could do some things a lot better.
“Passing and positional play”. For the first time in a long time we are blessed with two central defenders who not only tackle and defend well but are also “footballers”. Im starting to get more confident in them bringing the ball out of defence so in theory that should give our attacking players more scope to find decent positions. Once in midfield i totally agree 9 out of 10 times we seem to take the difficult option instead of the safe clean pass. Im sure Lenny and the coaching staff can see this and are working at Lennoxtown to improve.
To give the team a bit of credit, they work tirelessly on the park and we dont have any “passengers”.
With players comming back from suspention and injury and with the confidence of the first win in the CL this year I am sure that the improvement will come. Hail hail
Agreed Jimbo.
You certainly can’t fault the players for their graft, it’s that hard work that seen them beat Ajax last night and come so close to taking points off both Barca and Milan. That is to their immense credit when you consider they are such a young group of players, many of whom are still finding their feet at the club, and the quality of the opposition they are up against.
As you say for the first time in a long time we now have defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet the same goes for the midfield and the bhoys up front too. The talent and technical ability is already there so a few little tweaks to their positioning and movement by Lenny and a little more patience in possession this team is more than capable of getting a result in Amsterdam and beating Milan at home, with Barca who knows! One things for sure the more we keep possession in these matches the less damage the opposition can inflict upon us and it allows us to take the game to them instead of them always dictating the play.
We have plenty of reasons to celebrate and a lot to be positive about after last nights result. Qualification is still in our own hands, it will be tough but I think if we can get to grips with these parts of our game then we have every chance.
Hail Hail.
Sorry Joe I seem to have picked up an ‘n’ at the end of my ‘.com’.
Sorry
HH
Great night we beat Ajax that all that maters It’s not our fault that there manager is an bitter man after he comes by it nuturaly he was a Hun for 2seasons back there So well done everyone at Parkhead Hail Hail. JMJ
Joe can you tell me what bonus money Celtic got for beating Ajax? Also in the u19 league is there bonus money paid for a win against Ajax?