No panic as de Boer watches Ajax lose again

Frank de Boer refused to panic after watching Ajax lose 1-0 at home last night to a last minute goal from Vitesse Arnhem.

The defeat saw Ajax drop down to fifth place in Eredivisie with just 19 points from 12 matches ahead of the must-win Champions League clash with Celtic on Wednesday.

It was the second consecutive home league match in which Ajax had failed to score with the clubs’ problems obvious to de Boer.

“Sigthorsson and Fischer had chances to score but didn’t take them, Vitesse scored with their chance,” Alex McLeish’s former defender explained.

“We need much more careful with our opportunities but I am confident that we will come good, we were unlucky today, now we must prepare for Celtic and an important match on Wednesday.”

Viktor Fischer added: “We had a lot of opportunities but couldn’t put the ball away, the loss was stupid, really. Now we have to make sure we are there again Wednesday.

“We played fairly, it wasn’t very good but it certainly wasn’t bad. Therefore we shouldn’t lose this game.”

While Celtic are in Amsterdam AC Milan head to Barcelona nursing a 2-0 defeat at home to Fiorentina.

The defeat piles the pressure onto Massimo Allegri with Milan sitting in tenth place in Serie A, 16 points behind third placed Juventus and looking highly unlikely to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

In Catalonia Barcelona enjoyed a narrow 1-0 win over city neighbours Espanyol to stay at the top of La Liga with the only goal of the game coming from Alexis Samchez midway through the second half.